


Paparazzi, Tabloids and Lies

by PrincelessDiaries



Category: American Actor RPF, Captain America (Movies), Fantastic Four (Movies 2005-2007), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Snowpiercer (2013), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), What's Your Number? (2011)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-03-21 01:13:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 30,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3671940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincelessDiaries/pseuds/PrincelessDiaries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dating a celebrity was never on your "to-do" list, until you met Chris. Keeping it under the radar was your main priority, and for a long time that was okay with Chris. When he starts to push for more and relationship rumors surface you decide it's time to go public and out your relationship with Chris. But, will Paparazzi, Tabloids and Lies tear you two apart?</p><p>Also published on Wattpad and in part on Instagram @princelessdiaries</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

'Should have known better,' you thought to yourself as you sit alone at a table in Umami Burger in Pasadena. You love Umami, but normally don't drive all the way from Laurel Canyon for it. Especially since there are locations far closer. Today, however, you promised your best friend, Ashley, a shopping trip and there was nothing you loved better than to hit up Kate Spade and Joie and of course Old Town Pasadena's Gold Bug. You could never leave without at least one piece. But, alas, you were still waiting on Ashley to even get to lunch. Not unsurprisingly she was nearing thirty minutes past the agreed meet-up time. You love her dearly, but punctuality was never her strong suit. You two had been friends since junior high, though and you could easily see past whatever flaws she has, as she does for you. Finally you spot her as she comes bursting through the door, clearly distraught about something.

"You will not believe what is all over the tabloid websites this morning." 

She's practically yelling, not that it makes too much difference in the noisy restaurant, but she is garnering attention. You gesture for her to lower her voice. "What," you ask, because she's clearly upset, but to be honest you don't really care. It's all crap with little to no merit. You yourself have firsthand experience since you are dating a celebrity, you know not to take stock in what is published, especially if it’s e-published. This right here is why even your closest friends and family are unaware of your relationship with Chris. They would inevitably slip up with someone and living in L.A. that is dangerous. Tabloids need very little to make up a story just to sell a magazine or get hits on their websites.

"Lily Collins is dating Chris Evans! It's everywhere, even on Perez Hilton so you know it's true. They met at an Oscars after party. Guess he's really not dating that girl he brought with him to the Oscars after all." She’s lowered her voice, but she’s still grabbing the attention of the nearest tables. You are sure you are white as a ghost, but she’s looking down at her cell phone, probably looking at another article.

'Breathe, y/n, just breathe.' You repeat the mantra internally for about thirty seconds, giving you enough time to calm yourself enough to not scream 'he's mine,' because, he is, but she doesn't know that. You have gathered yourself enough to speak and she is now looking up at you. "First of all, Tara, his date is married and second of all just because it's on Perez Hilton does not make it true. And why do you care so much anyway? You prefer blondes and hate beards." 

"Um, I can make an exception for Captain freaking America, he's yummy.” 

'And taken' you think to yourself. 

She looks at you intently, “How do you know so much about his date?”

‘Oh no.’ “I remember seeing a quick blurb about it in a magazine,” you say hoping she believes you, she seems slightly unconvinced. You need to change the subject quick before she keeps on and you end up strangling your best friend in Umami Burger. "What shops do you want to get to today?"

That does the trick. She is now spouting off all of the shops she wants to go to until the server comes to take your order. After that the rest of your lunch is spent talking trends and red carpet fashion. 

Even though you are enjoying your time with Ashley, in the back of your head you really want to just get home to Chris and ask how this story could have been dreamt up. You don't dare text him now while you are with Ashley the Interrogator. She'd get everything out of you before your check got to the table. It would just have to wait. 

There was no way you could come up with a legitimate reason to leave before all of the shops had been thoroughly picked through by you both. And telling her the truth, 'Sorry, Ash, I just really wanna get home to my celebrity boyfriend and ask him about this supposed relationship he has with a hot, young starlet,' really wasn't the road you wanted to go down. Waiting it out with her, feigning excitement and interest, was now your only option. Unfortunately, also, probably the worst option. You now had hours to stew and contemplate what Ashley had told you. 

'Should I look at the articles? Are there pictures of them together? What will I do if there are pictures? Would I be able to hold it together until I am alone and away from Ashley? She would most certainly ask why I'd suddenly left her very upset and no one can stand up to Ashley when she's on a mission for answers. She should work for the CIA. I need to know if they had been photographed together.' Your inner ramblings were taking over and before you can determine if it’s a smart move or not you ask Ashley about the articles.

“So, Ash, was there any photographic proof to go with these articles you read?” You are hoping you sound casual, but you know you don’t. Luckily for you Ashley is so engrossed with sifting through racks of clothes she doesn’t even notice your apprehension.

"No, no pictures of them together. Only says they hit it off at the Vanity Fair after party, the relationship is still early and they are both extremely busy so they are taking it slow,” she responds with a bit of a frown and appears to be contemplating it all over again. 

Your relief is short-lived as you mentally slap yourself for bringing the topic up again. Thankfully you are saved by a white, lacy sheath mini dress that she spots just behind you that she begins to gush over. Now that she is fully distracted you turn back to your inner turmoil. Fully knowing tabloid articles are bullshit, especially when there are no pictures to back it up, however you still can't help but wonder how the articles were conceived. What has made everyone think your man is with her? 

Ashley pulls you from your thoughts here and there when she asks your opinion on clothes, shoes and accessories. Eventually she stops what she’s doing and turns to you, “Okay, BFF, what’s up? You have been acting so strange all day. I thought at first maybe you were irritated that I was late, and that shopping would make you feel better, but you only seem to get more distracted the more we shop.”

And that is why she is your closest friend. She always knows what’s going on with you. If ever there was a time to learn something about acting from Chris, now would be the time. You both know that you are a terrible liar and that lying to Ashley is impossible for you. You needed to come up with a fib quick and act like your life depends on it. In all reality your life does depend on it, your private life.

“I just have a really stressful bride I am working with,” you respond with as much sincerity as possible. Technically what you had told her is true. You do have a bride that’s been slightly difficult to please, but nothing you weren't used to or couldn't handle. “She’s one of those that came in wanting for me to plan everything and she just shows up the day of. I had her fill out all the surveys so I could accurately plan something she would adore and every time I present her with something she goes completely off of everything she said she liked and suggests something she had told me was absolutely something she never wanted,” you said. It was true enough.

She seemed to believe it though. “How frustrating,” she says. “I could never event plan,” Ashley continues. “What’s the next bit you are working on for her?” 

“Flower arrangements and centerpieces.”

“What did she say she absolutely hated for a centerpiece idea?” 

“LED lights,” you say.

“You should do that,” she laughs nudging you. 

After that you make a conscious effort to put aside everything else and focus on time with your best friend. Between your job as an event planner and hers working at Nasty Gal clothing as product and production assistant manager you both find it difficult to find spare time to see one another. You throw yourself into mindless shopping for things that you don’t actually need. 

It's well into the evening when she finally lets you leave after forcing you to sit through another meal you just weren't hungry for due to nerves. She had noted you only picked at your lunch so, again you had to make a conscious effort to push the Chris articles out of your mind and eat.

You say your goodbyes and you now have thirty minutes of driving to think about what you will say to Chris when you get to his place. Good thing you didn't read the articles, otherwise you would have even more on your mind and your brain was already nearing the point of combustion as it was. You finally pull in the gates and you are pepping yourself up… for no damn reason. As the garage lifts you notice Chris' car isn't there. Great, more waiting


	2. Chapter 2

You pull into the space allotted for your vehicle and get out of the car with a huff. You walk in and call his name, just in case. When you received no response you went into the master bedroom and dropped your things on the reading chair in the corner. This was technically Chris' house and you kept your own apartment, but most all of your belongings were here. A large space in the closet housed your clothes, three of the six dresser drawers contained your pajamas and undergarments, the bedside table on the left was yours; mostly a junk drawer. Chris even purchased a jewelry armoire for the bedroom. Half the bathroom contained your things and when he had the bathroom remodeled he had a vanity put in so you could sit while doing your hair and makeup. That is where you headed. You grabbed your lavender bubble bath. That always made you feel better and relaxed. You turned on the water and put in the stopper when the water was hot enough and then squeezed in a generous amount of liquid from the bottle. Decompressing from the stress that was building was going to be a smart move before Chris got home. You wanted to be as calm as possible when he returned, realizing then, you didn't know when that would be. 

Running out back to the bedroom from the en suite you grabbed your phone and sent him a text asking when he'd be back and then stripped off your clothes. You sank deep into the hot bath willing yourself to relax. You have no time to talk yourself into doing that because your phone went off alerting a text and it was Chris:

“B home in 10 honey”

So much for decompressing. 

You raise out of the tub, slightly jittery from nerves. You did not want to have this conversation. You know in your head you aren't accusing him of anything. He loves you and he's faithful, of that you have no doubt. But, you know that Chris and you don't always communicate well. You will both be saying the exact same thing only in different ways and get so frustrated thinking the other isn't understanding. You just want to know why he’s being linked with her. You are just barely in a slinky, short night gown when Chris arrives home. 

"Hey, baby, did you have fun with Ashley?" He asks walking into the bedroom and coming over to kiss you. He then heads to the closet at the back of the bathroom to begin undressing so he, too, can get ready for bed. 

"Yeah, it was good," you reply following him into the bathroom and going to sit at the vanity getting ready to do your nightly routine of makeup remover and face cream. "She was thirty-five minutes late; surprise, surprise." That earned a chuckle from the closet. "Where were you, Babe?" You ask; not prying, curious though. 

"Over at Scott's," he says coming into the sink beside you to brush his teeth. "He and Todd broke up. He was a bit depressed so I went over and had a beer with him." 

"Oh, that's terrible. I'll call him tomorrow and see if he's free for lunch." 

"He'd like that," Chris says between brushes. 

You sit and look at the man you love for a minute, contemplating the rumor surrounding his love life. Why does it even matter? You know it’s not true. This isn’t the first time a rumored relationship has been in the tabloids while you have been together. The only reason this one bugs you is because you knew these other ones were coming. You knew he’d gotten to meet his childhood crush, Sandra Bullock, and been photographed and then he went to dinner with her and Chelsea Handler where paparazzi caught them all on camera. He had prepared you for that rumor. He had told you about lunch with Minka and Lindsey so when those photos ended up in the tabloids you weren’t surprised either. Though they are both exes so you can’t say you were really pleased that he had gone at all. And most recently the Disneyland trip that linked him with his buddy’s model friend Lucy. That one upset you a little because you were actually on that trip too, no one assumed the non-model looking girl could possibly be the one with Chris. Chris had comforted you and reminded you that you both made an effort to never stand too close together, based off of what you wanted, so of course they were going to assume the girl standing next to him was his date.

'Nope, can't do it,' you thought. These articles are all rubbish just like the last ones. You chickened out and started to get up and leave the bathroom. You must have been deeper in thought than you realized because Chris has finished brushing and has grabbed your wrist as you tried to walk away. 'Shit.' 

"Hey, what's going on?" He asks with genuine concern etched on his face. You sigh. He knows you too well. 

"Have you seen the gossip rags today?" 

"How did you hear about that?" He asks. 

"I don't exactly have you on Google alerts if that's what you're implying, Chris." You pause for a second to get your temper back down. You were a little edgy and didn't appreciate where his question could have led your conversation. "Ashley told me. First thing she mentioned. In fact I think she was late because she was googling you. She has a bit of a crush." He scoffed at that and pulled you into a hug. 

"I honestly don't know where this bullshit came from. I came straight home to you that night and you know this. I love you, baby. I think I've met Lily once." His embrace is tight, but not smothering. You had begun crying into his chest. You hadn't really realized how upset you had been. A lot probably had to do with holding it all in for hours. He rubbed your back soothing you, just letting you cry into him like the time the Lucy articles came out. 

"You know," Chris begins, "this wouldn't have to be an issue if-" 

"If you end that sentence with 'if we go public' I'm going to go sleep at my apartment tonight," you say. He knows you want to keep your life with him private. 

"Y/n it has been a year and the only people who know about us are the very, very few people I have told. I wouldn't have to reassure you about rumored relationships if people knew I was with you." He's raising his voice now and you get a little distance. This has been a rough subject for you both lately. He has been pushing to go public, but you just aren't ready.  
"No. No. I just am not comfortable with that yet, Chris. I don't want to be hounded by paparazzi and judged and criticized by your fans. I like what we have right now, why do we have to ruin this?" Chris is hurt. 

“Ruin what? Hiding? Never going out of the house without a group of friends, who mind you just think you are one of Scott’s friends. People would know you are mine. That’s not going to ruin anything,” Chris fires back. “I can’t stand too close when we are out, I can’t call you when I am around people who don’t know and I can't even do something as small as follow you on Twitter!”

Chris is right, you have put a lot of limitations on what is and isn’t okay, even things as trivial as him following you on a social media site he himself barely uses. He’s been incredibly patient with you and gave you the time you needed to get comfortable with his celebrity. In truth he probably hadn’t expected to be hiding out on his couch with you every weekend to avoid being seen together. Even getting you to agree to group things had been like pulling teeth and took both Chris and Scott convincing you to agree. 

“I just can’t, Chris. I’m sorry, I know this isn’t fair to you,” you say and avoid looking into his eyes. “I don’t want people to know.”

"If you really can't handle this, y/n, we better figure this out now before either of us wastes more of our time." And with that, he stalks off around you and this is one of the few times you two go to bed angry.


	3. Chapter 3

You stay in the bathroom a while. You decide to try again for that lavender bubble bath you failed to complete earlier. You run the bath nice and hot and sink back in. You grab the remote and turn on the television at the opposite end of the tub. You go to the Netflix application and decide binge watching, “Friends,” while trying to relax in the tub was a good way to try and calm down. You know this fight is your fault, you just didn’t know how to fix it without complying with what Chris was begging you for. 

Five episodes in you decide the bath is finally too cold to sit in comfortably any longer. Raising up you shiver slightly, the lack of movement in the tub makes you realize the water was colder than you had noticed. You towel off and then go back to your vanity to reapply the lotion you just washed off. You hang your towel and put the nighty back on. Peeking out into the bedroom you can see Chris has his eyes shut and judging by the slight part in his lips you can tell he’s fast asleep. You tip toe in and crawl silently into bed.

Three a.m. rolls around and you are still lying there wide awake. You want to apologize and you don’t want him angry, but you really don't want to let the world in. It scares you that all these eyes will be on you. You saw all of the hate and unkindness that Sebastian’s girlfriend received last year. She’s tough and used to criticism, it’s why she is an actor. You don’t have thick skin like that. 

The thought of losing him, however, scares you even more though. 'Figure this out before either of us wastes more of our time.' The sentence is so loud in your head it's deafening. Would he really end your relationship? 'Would you?' Your subconscious fires back. He's been very patient. He feels like you're ashamed to be with him, even though you have tried to put him at ease many times you know that thought is in his head. He thinks that's why you haven't told your family at least. It's not that at all. You just don't like to advertise at all when you're dating someone, even to family. 

He doesn't understand that. He has such an open relationship with his mother he can't comprehend not sharing these things with family. You share most things with your family. You are all very close. It’s just, the last relationship you had you gotten so close with his friends and family and vice versa that when it ended you both had such a hard time breaking up with everybody. For a long time you remained friends with his cousin and frequently stayed over at his aunt and uncles house when visiting, instead of making the two hour drive home. Your ex was none too pleased about that, but you and his family were so close and they loved you. Even took your side in the break up. You had to explain to them regardless of how he treated you that he was family and they needed to support him. After that you all but cut them off, only remaining friends via social media and occasionally speaking. It was hard starting over; they were your whole social group for a very long time. It wasn’t that you had stopped seeing your friends when you started seeing Andrew, it was that you really didn’t have many to begin with. You were very depressed for a long time. A hole that was very hard to pull yourself out of. You don't want to go through that again. However, with Chris this angry you just may. Tears threaten to spill. You can't lose him. You won’t lose him. 

"Chris," you whisper. The tears have begun and you hope you can get yourself together enough to speak. "Chris," you say again a little louder. 

"Hmmm, what?" He sits up a bit and then focuses on your tear stained face, "you're leaving me aren't you?" He furrows his brow and closes his eyes leaning back on the pillow. 

"What? No-" you begin, only to be cut off by Chris. 

"Y/n, I'm sorry, I am. I didn't mean to push you or give you an ultimatum. I'm just so tired of not doing things other couples do. When was the last time we ate a meal in a restaurant just the two of us?” He’s referring to the time he took you to this tiny restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea. He had paid quite a bit and required everyone there sign a non-disclosure agreement. “I feel like we spend more time hiding the relationship than actually having one." 

You see how hurt Chris is and how selfish you have been. You had woken him up to tell him you two could stop hiding and any doubts you still had when waking him vanished. You decide to stop his rambling. 

You grip his face gently forcing him to look at you, "Chris, Honey, stop. I'm not leaving. I woke you up because I wanted to tell you I am sorry. I don't think we should hide anymore. I love you and I want everyone to know it." 

Stunned is probably the best word to describe the look Chris has on his face. I think those were the very last words he thought would come out of your mouth. He's still silent so you speak. "I know you know how hard my last break up was because I was so close with his family and I know it's why you haven't pressured me to meet yours. I want to meet them though. You and I, we're forever. I don't have to worry about being close to your family because they won't be going anywhere. And neither am I." 

He just pulls you to him crushing you to his chest. "Baby, I love you and you're right we are forever." He lets go and reaches into his bedside table drawer. He produces a black box. 

"You kept it?" You ask, utterly shocked, your voice not much above a whisper.

You had been visiting your family for a few weeks over Thanksgiving. Your grandfather had just passed so you were spending time with you mother. She was very close with her father. Chris and you were a bit on shaky ground. He couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t at least tell your family you were seeing someone; not even going into details about who, just that there was someone in your life. It had hurt him. He had wanted to spend Christmas with you at his parents and you had declined. 

A package had come in the mail addressed to you with no return label on it. It was shoebox size and although you were an online shopping connoisseur you were certain you hadn't purchased anything, let alone had it set to deliver to your parent’s house. Skeptical you took the package into your room to open it in private. Sitting in the brown UPS shipping box amidst all the packing pieces was a note and a little black box. 

‘This box better have earrings in it,’

You pull out the folded note first and read it: 

Just wanted you to have an early Christmas gift, I love you and I wish I could be there with you.  
-C

You open the box and see the most gorgeous ring. It's a large emerald cut solitaire diamond, over five carats easily. On either side are smaller, maybe three carat square cut diamonds in a white gold setting. This ring was meant for much more than a simple Christmas gift. This was also meant for you to open in front of your family so you'd have to explain this ring. Clever. You would not be backed into a corner though. You tucked the ring away and came out dismissing the package as books you'd ordered to read during your stay and on your flight. When you got home you were furious that Chris had done that. You'd ended up breaking up for a couple of weeks just before Christmas, only to get back together on New Year’s Eve. The condition was he would never do something like that to you again and you had told him to return the ring, but here he was presenting you with it again. 

"It really is just a gift. It's a promise that I will propose in a way you absolutely deserve," he says. "Please, will you wear this?" 

"Yes," you say through tears. 

He slips it on your left hand ring finger and the kisses the center diamond. 

"I really love this ring, I'm glad you kept it." You say hugging on to him. 

"Me too," he says. 

Chris lays you back down and you snuggle together face to face. "It's late, go back to sleep. We will talk more tomorrow. I love you y/n."


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning you wake up alone in the large, king size bed. You stretch and sit up. Crawling out of bed you decide to go in search of Chris. Just about the time you find him in the kitchen you remember the ring. Looking down, you realize it's not on your finger. It was a size and a half too big, it must have slipped off while you were sleeping. You turn to go back and find it but you are stopped when Chris envelopes you in his arms. He kisses you on the neck while holding your backside soundly to his chest. 

"Good morning, Beautiful," he whispers in your ear and then kisses it. 

You can't help the grin that has involuntarily taken up residence in the place of the frown you wore for the majority of the day yesterday. 

"Hungry?" 

"Yes, but my ring, it slipped off and I need to go find it," you explain. 

Still holding you he turns you both toward the breakfast nook that you have now noticed is adorned with enough food to feed a film crew. He's made all of your favorites; Belgian waffles, red velvet pancakes, bacon, sausage links and a heaping pile of scrambled eggs with cheese. 

"It's an apology and a thank you." He says letting you go and turning you to face him. "I'm sorry for the fight we had yesterday and I hate going to bed angry. I shouldn't have turned the direction of our conversation that way, but, I'm glad it did and I'm so thankful you and I don't have to hide anymore. I can't wait to just go to the grocery store with you or go out for a walk. Just be out. I love you and I just want the world to know your mine." He kisses you chastely and pulls back and his eyes light up, "Let's eat!" 

You giggle and let him pull you to your seat at the table, the ring temporarily forgotten. It will still be there when you finish. He pulls out your chair and helps push you in. He piles your plate with a lot of all of it. "Babe, take it easy, I can't eat all of this." 

He chuckles and tells you to eat whatever you want. It's delicious. You have to hand it to Lisa, she taught her boy well. The meal was great and as you get up to take the dishes he jumps up and takes them from you. 

"Let me," he insists, "it's not much, but I want to make up for last night." 

He moves to clear the dishes and clean up while you head back to the bedroom to find your promise ring. You pull back each layer and finally find it hiding under your pillow. "Ah-ha!" 

"You find it?" Chris says walking just as you had discovered its hiding place.

"Yep," you say happily as you slip it back on. 

You leave the bedroom to go in the office in search of tape to wrap around the bottom so you don’t lose it again. Chris is following close behind. 

"We should get that sized so you don't lose it somewhere else. We could go right now," Chris suggests. 

You freeze. "Like, together?" 

"Generally speaking, that's what 'we' infers, yes," he chuckles. 

"I- well- do you… together? To a jewelry store? To have left handed ring sized. Is that a good idea? I mean-" 

He interrupts your rambling. "Are you having second thoughts? I thought we got past this finally." 

You can see his frustration building. ‘Oh, no!’ You must diffuse whatever bomb is about to go off. "No, Babe, no second thoughts. I'm just concerned, you can't blame me that I'm scared." 

"I know, I'm sorry. Can we please go size that ring." He takes both of your hands in his and gives you his puppy dog pout that you couldn't resist even if you'd wanted to. You did want to have the ring sized. You wanted to wear it and God forbid you lose it. 

"Okay," you relent, "and let’s call Scott and see if he wants to meet up. You know, get his mind off of Todd." 

"Good idea, Honey. I'll go call him. Get ready." He swats your butt then grabs his phone from his pocket. 

"Yes sir!" You salute him and head off to ready yourself. 

You are nearly done when Chris comes in to get dressed himself. You can see him naked in the closet in the reflection of the mirror you sit in front of. You turn, and looking at him straight on and you think to yourself 'you done good, girl.' Smirking you turn back to your own reflection. You catch sight of him in the mirror again and you know you've been caught. 

"Like what you see?" Chris says donning a smirk mirroring yours. 

"You know it, Baby." 

*~*

You are in the car with Chris on the way to Westime in Malibu. It's a watch shop, but it's owned by the same jewelry company who made your ring. Chris knew you were nervous about being seen together for the first time alone, let alone visiting a jewelry store. You could practically see the headlines already. Chris had called Scott but he couldn't meet until later, so you two were all alone, in public, for the first time ever. 

"Is this a good idea? I mean shouldn't we maybe just start with going to lunch and then I can have my ring sized later this week?" You are having a hard time disguising the nervousness in your voice. 

"No, we are doing this. You need to have that ring fit," Chris says as he pulls your hand up to kiss the emerald shaped diamond like he did after he slipped the ring on last night.

You sigh, resigned. You said yes to being seen together, no going back now. To your great surprise, there are no photographers in sight. You walk in and tell the sales associate about the ring. Much to your dismay they don't have the required equipment to size the ring, they only deal in time pieces. 'Shit.' You see Chris smiling and the subtlety of it tells you he knows this already. 

"Welp, looks like we have to go somewhere else." He's now grinning. 

"This was your plan all along wasn't it?" You are glaring daggers and if looks could kill he'd be a goner. "You planned this, didn't you?" 

He simply shrugs, takes your hand, and leads you from the store. 

"Where are we going now?" 

"You'll see," that little shit is still grinning. 

"Now why does that scare me?” You mumble.

In the car he's holding your hand, periodically bringing it to his lips. He's being unbelievably sweet; a mixture of him being so happy and trying to calm your nerves. You have a small inkling where you may be going, and then know for sure once he's turned on to North Santa Monica Boulevard. 

Rodeo Drive. 

'Of course he would.' You're internally cringing and outwardly tensing. Chris can feel you tighten around his hand. 

"I know this is really public, Honey, but I figured go big or go home right." He smiles softly waiting for your temper to sky rocket. 

You keep calm, however, resigned to the fact that this is your life now. You nod and give a small smile. It's his turn to tighten around your hand. You sigh and sit back. Chris pulls up to a curb some blocks away. He doesn't park close and because of that you two are able to walk to Tiffany & Co. a little easier, no immediate mob. That doesn't stop the fan girls from spotting him, however. He's instantly mobbed by tourists and fans once on Rodeo Drive. You walk a bit away as not to be in their way. He’s kind, talks to people, takes photos; but he keeps walking. 

Not long after you are out front of Tiffany's, Chris tells you to head in and he will be right behind you. True to his word he takes a couple more pictures and he's in the store. You have already taken your ring off and the sales associate is measuring your finger. Chris is browsing while you are being sized and then you join him. There are so many pretty things. You know better than to show too much interest as Chris has been known to buy things he thinks you even mildly like. 

They work fast having it sized. About the time the ring is finished Scott has called to say he’s at the restaurant. Chris and he made plans to meet for lunch at 208 Rodeo just above the jewelry store. Chris says to go on while he pays. He grabs your waist and kisses you before you can leave. You giggle and push his chest, looking around to see who else may have seen. Only the sales attendant who helped you seems to have noticed and she’s smiling.

"Love you," he says to your retreating back. 

"You too!" You call over your shoulder and you are out the door. 

There are still a few fans waiting outside for him. He probably ducked in too quick and they didn’t get a picture or autograph. Glancing around you scan for photographers. You don’t see any, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. They can be masters at hiding or be as blunt as to chase you. 

You turn up the steps to the restaurant and Scott waves at you from the patio. He doesn't seem as down as you thought he would be. He really liked Todd and you're glad he seems to be handling it okay. You come around to him and pulls you into the seat next to him and envelopes you in a bear hug the way only an Evans boy can. 

"Hi, friend! How are you doing, Love?" You ask. 

"I'm okay. It was a bit rough at first, but after talking to Chris I just realized how different he was from everyone I love. He was so not family oriented, that was not going to fly." 

You giggle and agree. There is no way Scott would be happy with someone who wouldn’t enjoy being around family, especially for the holidays. He puts his arm around your shoulder and tilt your head to rest it on his. 

"He's really happy you know, that you're pushing past your comfort zone for him,” Scott says in almost a whisper

"I know," you begin "I'm happy too, just scared." 

Scott nods in understanding.

About that time Chris walks up and sits down. "Hoarding her all to yourself I see," Chris says. 

"Yes, you need to learn to share her, especially now I have no boy to occupy my time,” Scott retorts.

Chris lets out one of his amazing, animated belly laughs and throws his head back. "Okay, okay, fair enough." 

The server comes over and takes your drink orders. After some idle chit chat she comes to take your food order. You aren’t too hungry after the large breakfast Chris had made, but you love their Caesar dressing so you order that salad. Chris and Scott get talking business and you zone out a little. You rest your head on Scott's shoulder absent-mindedly. When they both realize you have spaced out they laugh at you and you laugh too. 

"Sorry," you say and blush a little. 

About that time your food comes and you are all very silent throughout the meal. 

Afterward you and Chris part ways with Scott and head back to the car. "That was actually pretty painless," you say, "Maybe this won't be so tough after all." Chris smiles at you while he opens your door. The drive home is peaceful.


	5. Chapter 5

You and Chris are in a contented state you hadn't ever felt with each other. It's a wonderful feeling... that lasted about all of five hours. That evening on Extra was Chris, being mobbed by fans before entering Tiffany's and then again leaving alone with the bag containing your ring. 

"Chris Evans spotted today at Tiffany's leaving with a rather small bag. Things seem to be progressing quickly with Lily Collins as the couple met just last month. After his little shopping trip he met his brother and friend for lunch." Mario Lopez stated on the television. 

"Can you just imagine being her," Tracey Edmonds says. "She’s just snagged one of the most eligible men in Hollywood, Captain America, and he is already buying jewelry that comes in that beautiful, little blue box." 

Hearing them gush over how lucky Lily is, is enough to send you over the edge. You don't mean to, but the 'friend' comment and then to jump right to the assumption there is something in the bag for another girl just hurts. You don't completely know why it hurts so much. Maybe it was more of the assumption that you were just a friend. Obviously you aren't famous so why would he be with you. Tears are silently streaming down your face when Chris pulls you too him. 

"I'm sorry." 

"It's not like it is your fault," you say. 

He had seen you slightly upset over the Lucy incident. You hadn’t told Chris why you were so upset before, he just assumed it was simply the rumor itself, but he was going to hear the truth now. 

"I mean come on, they have no clue who I am. I'm not famous, I'm not important, I'm definitely not as pretty as her so why should they assume you're with me?" 

Chris' heart breaks when he hears you talk about yourself like that. He knew ex, Andrew, had been emotionally abusive and manipulative and he had made you feel unworthy of anyone’s attention. When you first met you pretty shocked he had asked you out and then pursued when you initially declined. He had managed to win you over and when he knew more about you and your past relationship he'd worked hard to build your confidence. You had a lot of self-doubt and were overly critical of yourself at times, but he'd never actually heard you say you weren't as pretty as someone else. He sat back and made you face him. 

"Don't you think for even one second you are not as gorgeous as anyone I have dated or they think I've dated, because you are! You are actually hands down the most beautiful girl that I've dated inside and out and I love you." He says it with such conviction and sincerity you can't help but kiss him. 

"I love you too. I just… the whole point of being out in public together was so I wouldn't have to hear rumors about you and someone else." 

You know at this point you're just pouting and being a tad childish, but it's still true. Being out meant there would be no more speculation about who he was with. Sure they'd follow you, which epically sucked, but it also meant you wouldn't have to let your brain wander to horrible places about how each rumor started. "I just need to go to bed, Babe." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah, Chris, it's been a wonderful, but overwhelming day." You say goodnight to each other and you head to bed for a nightmare filled, restless night of sleep. 

*~*

You wake up early in the morning, a sweaty mess tangled in sheets, the sun barely beginning to peek out. You're also alone. Your tossing and turning must have kicked Chris out of bed. Since the sun is just coming up you decide to tell him to come back to sleep in his own bed, at least for a few more hours. Looking for him doesn't take long. He's in the kitchen on the phone having a heated conversation. 

"That's not the point!" He yells into the phone. 

He turns around to see you standing there in the kitchen entry and he reaches for you. He's wrapped an arm around your shoulders, holding you to his firm chest. You wrap your arms around his middle and hold tight while resting your head across his heart. It's beating rapidly in his rib cage. It was peaceful when he was listening to the other person, but when he goes to speak you wince a little at the volume. 

"I don't give a shit, Susan," oh, his publicist, this isn't good, "fucking fix it. Or I will find someone more in tune with what I want." With that he ends the call, slams the phone down on the counter and wraps his other arm around you. 

"I'm sorry." He says again for maybe the millionth time in the last three days. 

"Why would you be sorry?" You ask. 

"Because the Lily rumor was apparently set up by Susan and Lily's new publicist. Just some stunt to boost our popularity. I've told Susan to fix it, make a statement, tip off paparazzi where you and I will be next… I don't care how, but to fix it." You can hear the residual anger in his voice. 

You hug him close then tilt your head up indicating for him to kiss you. He obliges you. 

"How did you find out about this?" You ask. 

Chris sighs and takes your hand. He leads you to the sofa and sits you both down. 

"You were having such bad dreams last night," he brushes the back of his fingertips over your cheek. "I wanted to make them stop and I didn't know how to do it. Around five I woke up and when I looked at you, you had tears. You were crying in your sleep. I didn't know how to fix all of these Lily rumors, but I thought Susan might. So, I got up and called her a few times until she picked up. I told her how upsetting this whole situation has been for the two of us and about deciding to stop hiding and about going out yesterday together. That’s when she told me everything. I'm so sorry and so is she and she's going to fix this or lose a client. Babe, just don't leave me." 

You're shocked at most of what he's just said, but the most shocking was him thinking you're leaving. "Chris, why would you think I'd leave you? I love you," you say. 

"In your sleep, when I saw you crying, your mumbling is what woke me." He paused then. 

"What did I say?"

Chris hesitated and then you prompted him again a little more forcefully, “Chris, what did I say?”

"That you were sorry, but you had to go. You couldn’t do this anymore." 

You launch yourself at him, crawling into his lap and embracing him tight. "I would never! I'm not going anywhere, Christopher, you are stuck with me." 

He nods his acceptance, but you can see he's still worried. 

“I’m going to make us some breakfast, and we are going to eat it in bed and not do the dishes after,” you declare as you get up and make your way back to the kitchen. Chris turns and heads back down the hallway. Hopefully he will sleep a little while you make his breakfast. You purposely take your time in doing so. 

*~*

You decide to lay low today while Susan fixes her mistake. You two are binging on season two of The Fall on Netflix in bed when your phone goes off. Ashley is calling. Chris tells you to answer it. You snuggle back into Chris and connect the call. 

"Hey, Ash." 

"Have you seen the new Chris Evans pictures of him at lunch?" She asks. 

"No, why do you ask?" Chris is close enough to hear her. 

"This girl at lunch with him yesterday looks just like you from the back.

The only photo shown yesterday on Extra was of Chris leaving the jewelry store. You had to admit you were curious. This would be the first time you were caught on camera with Chris or at least in a photo published in some way. No photos of you surfaced after Disneyland, just a couple of him next to Lucy. You pull yourself away from those thoughts immediately. You must admit you are mildly curious.

"Really?" You ask, "Send me the photo." 

"Okay, let me call you right back." She hangs up and you sit up to look at Chris. 

"Tell her," he suggests.

"Over the phone?" 

"Do you have a better idea?" 

You pause and think of the best way to tell your closest friend you have been lying to her for nearly a full year. 

"Could I invite her here? It might be easier if you were with me." 

"Of course, this is your house too. Invite anyone over, anytime. Will you finally give up your apartment and fully move in now?" 

You pause and look up at the ceiling. 

"The answer isn't up there," he brings your head back down so you have to look him in the eye. "What is it, y/n? I mean when was the last time you slept at your own place?" 

He was right, of course. It had been months since you slept there, and only because Chris was away doing press at TIFF. You only go there to pick up mail and pay rent which is a waste of money. There was no food, little belongings, mostly just furniture. 

"I will feel so much more comfortable knowing if paparazzi are going to follow you home, they will be following you here." 

He had a point. He all around made good points. 

"Yes, I will give up my lease," you begin, “but only if you agree to let me pay some sort of rent and share the bills,” you add. 

This was something you were rather adamant on, you didn’t want him or anyone to think you were only in it for the money. He hadn’t let you pay for bills or give him rent. He rationalized you were still paying, rather unnecessarily, rent already. Now that wouldn’t be the case. 

He lights up and kisses you hard. Chris pulls back for a minute and tells you that you can write all the rent checks you want, but he won’t be cashing them. He then crashes his lips back down on to yours. It’s a lovely moment and it doesn't last long because, true to her word, Ashley is calling back. 

"Did you see it?" She asks before you can even say hello.

"No, not yet. Hey, what are you up to? Can you come over?" You ask, hoping equally for her to say yes or no. 

"Yeah, I'm just down the street," she answers. 

"Actually,” you pause a moment, “I don’t really live there anymore. I'll text you the new address and gate code." 

"What the hell is going on, y/n? You never told me you were moving," confusion laced with anger in her tone. 

"I have actually lived here for a while. Never mind, I'll explain when you get here. See you soon.”

You hang up and text Ashley the address to Chris'… your… Laurel Canyon home and the gate code and then you both interrupt your lazy day to get dressed and drop this bomb on your best friend.


	6. Chapter 6

You are dressed, ready and waiting when your doorbell rings. Chris is finishing in the shower when Ashley gets there, which is good because it will give you a few minutes to talk to her alone. You open the door, "Hey, Ash, come in." 

"Y/n, what the ever loving shit!” Ashley practically yells at you as you move aside to let Ashley in. “This place is huge,” she continues, “Why wouldn't you tell me about this? I know you make great money, but I didn't know you could afford something like this." Ashley rambles as she passes by you through the entry into the kitchen and family room. 

"Uh, well, I can't afford a place like this technically." You say. 

"Well, who pays the bills?" 

"My… boyfriend,” you reply hesitantly.

Ashley stands there with her mouth gaping and you think to yourself this is probably the only time you've ever seen Ashley speechless. 

"Boyfriend? So, let me get this straight, you have a boyfriend that you live with that I don't know about." 

She's mad. 

"Y-yes,” you stammer. 

"For how long?” 

Ashley the Interrogator has been unleashed. 

“It will be a year in next month in May." You respond. 

"A fucking year? Why have you never told me?"

She's definitely angry. 

"Well, um, that's complicated," you begin, "would you like to meet him? It might make things make a little more sense." You don’t give her a chance to respond, you are already on your way to the room to see if Chris is dressed. He is. He's showered, dressed and shaved. 

"Hey, look at you handsome," you say coming over to kiss his freshly shaved cheek. You hadn’t seen him clean shaved in months. "Ashley is here, would you come meet her?" 

"Of course," he says giving you a quick peck before taking your hand and leading you from the master bedroom. Ashley has taken a seat at the island and is looking through her phone. She doesn't notice you two have entered the room until you speak up. 

"Ashley, this is my boyfriend, Chris." And now for the second time, Ashley is speechless. Chris walks over to shake her hand and introduce himself. She is a deer in the headlights for a moment, wide eyed and stunned. After a good thirty seconds Ashley snaps out of it just enough to speak… barely.

"H-hi," Ashley stutters and you hide a small giggle. 

"It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you," Chris says. 

"Funny I've not heard a thing about you." She says glaring at you. "So that picture I said looks like you is actually is you." 

"Yeah, sorry to burst your Lily Collins bubble,” you say.

She's contemplative for a moment and then she lights up. "Oh my God, so that Tiffany's bag was for you!" There she is, the Ashley that you know. 

"Yes," you giggle, "he had given me a ring for Christmas that needed to be sized." 

She grabs your hand. "Well, where is it?" 

"Still in the bag," Chris chimes in. 

You laugh, "I completely forgot to put it on." 

"That's okay," Chris says, "you can't have it back yet anyway." 

"What? Why?" You pout.

"Well, you said how much you love it; and I really did love how beautiful it looks on your finger. So I figured you can have it back when I propose eventually." 

Ashley is squealing and now you’re speechless. Chris takes your silence as bad. 

"Unless of course you want a different ring-" 

You kiss him to shut him up. "No, no I love that ring and truth be told I was going to be really sad to replace it… eventually." 

You had forgotten Ashley was there. "So you have a boyfriend you live with and are talking marriage with and you couldn't tell me?" The anger is gone. Hurt. That's what you hear in her voice, hurt. 

"I'm sorry, Ash, I didn't tell anyone. Not even my family. You're the first person I have told. Right now. I didn't want to let the world in, I really liked our little bubble," you admit. 

"You wanted to see if you could work outside of the spotlight before you thrust yourself into the spotlight." 

That is why she's your best friend. She understands your inner workings better than anyone, with the exception of Chris and your mom.

"At first, yes, but then I got really comfortable with it being just us. And then really scared about it being more than us. We've decided to go public. I’m tired of all of the relationship rumors surrounding him, I don’t want to see them anymore. I’m scared to let the fans know and even more scared of their reaction; they can say some really hateful things when they feel they have been wronged, but I’ll have Chris’ support; and your support, too, I hope." 

“Of course you will,” She says. Her face goes ghost white and she looks over at Chris. She's now aware that she's been internet stalking your boyfriend. "Oh, y/n, I'm so sorry, I didn't know." 

"I know, it’s okay." You hug each other tightly. 

"So this whole Lily thing?" 

Chris pipes up, "stupid fucking publicity stunt!" 

"Touchy subject?" 

"Yeah, he wasn't privy to the plans until early this morning. His publicist has been told to fix it." 

You guys sit and visit. She learns a lot about all of the things you have not shared with her. How you met, first date, the ring and breaking up, moving in. You are so deep in conversation Chris offers to make dinner for the three of you so you and Ashley can continue. 

"Hey let's invite Scott," you suggest, "He’d love Ash." 

Chris calls Scott and he is more than happy to have a meal cooked for him. 

*~*

As you thought, Scott and Ashley hit it off immediately. They are both incredibly fun, opinionated and outgoing. And both really love fashion. 

The night goes by fast, and the four of you eventually say goodnight well in to the wee hours of the morning. You cuddle into Chris, waving goodbye in the doorway. 

"Successful first dinner party I'd say," Chris says and you giggle. 

"Yes, Honey, it was. I'm exhausted I had rough night and so did you," you say. 

"Let's sleep in really late tomorrow." He says as you two are walking back to your bedroom. "Are you sure you're exhausted though, Babe?" He asks. 

"Yes," you reply and then you look at him. You know it will be a while longer before you get to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

As you wanted, Chris and you sleep well past noon. You much prefer to be tangled in Chris than in bed sheets. He's far warmer. He's felt you stir and he holds you closer. He kisses the top of your head and then releases you. He rolls over to grab his phone. He'd put it on silent as not to disturb either of you. 

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." 

He's got that sexy, raspy sleep voice. If he hadn't been upset you probably would have enjoyed it more. 

"What is it, Chris?" 

"Fucking Susan." 

He's out of bed placing the phone to his ear pacing the length of the bedroom. You sit up and watch him. He's rarely this angry. You sit up against the headboard, hug your knees to your chest and wait for whatever Hell is about to be unleashed. 

"What the fuck, Susan! You gave her my phone number? What is wrong with you?" 

He pauses to listen to whatever Susan is saying. 

"You're supposed to be my publicist, not hers. Stop worrying about what she wants and start worrying about what I want!” Chris hangs up the phone before she can respond and he growls in frustration.

"Baby, what's going on?" You are now up and by his side. You cup his face and force him to look at you. "Baby?"

Chris grabs your shoulders and kisses you. 

"Susan gave Lily's publicist my phone number. Lily text me." He places his phone in my hand and sits on the edge of the bed. 

“Hey chris its lily… Listen I know u r in a relationship but i was hoping u 2 could keep it quiet a bit longer… Maybe we could meet for coffee & talk abt it?”

"Are you going to meet her?" 

"What? No!" He says and he grabs you gently to sit on him. 

"It's her career too." You say. 

"Such a big heart," he says to you and places his large hand over your beating heart. 

"She can find another fake boyfriend. Or maybe a real one. But it's not gonna be me." 

He holds you close and buries his nose in your neck, "What do you want to do about this Chris?" 

"I'm going to take care of this today. Here," he says lifting you and he walks over to his wallet. He hands you his debit card. "Go shopping with Ashley. Buy something really pretty," he says smiling, "a whole outfit. We are going out tonight." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes, go." 

You call Ashley and tell her what's going on. You realize now how great it is to be able to share things about Chris with her. She says she will come and get you, so you go take a shower. You are just finished getting ready when she text messages you that she's out front. You get into the front seat and Scott's there too sitting in the middle of the backseat. 

"Hiya!" Scott says. 

"Five minutes in the know and you two are already besties?" You say laughing. 

"Um, yes, how dare you keep her all to yourself all this time," Scott says laughing, too. 

Even though you have Chris’ card you still don’t want to be over the top with spending. You suggest La Brea Avenue, but Ashley and Scott will hear none of it.

*~*

"Well," Ashley begins, "that was quite a successful shopping trip." 

She's sipping a glass of wine while lounging by the pool at Scott's house. 

"Yes, good thing we were with her, too, otherwise she'd have gone to Ross," Scott says laughing at you. 

"Hey, I am no gold digger. I was not trying bankrupt him on one shopping trip; which thanks to you two I very nearly did." 

"Please, he can afford a few things on Rodeo Drive, I know what that ring cost," Scott says. 

"Why has everyone seen this ring but me?" Ashley says. 

"Because you're just out of the loop," Scott teases. 

"This is nice," you say, "having you both with me together." 

"Awe, Pumpkin, we like it too," Scott says hugging you. 

"Okay enough sun, let’s get you ready for your night out," Ashley says excitedly clapping. 

A couple hours later Ashley and Scott have your hair and makeup done and dressed in your short sleeve black and grey Versace mini dress over your new Agent Provocateur bra and panties. You had borrowed some jewelry from Ashley that you stopped to pick up on the way to Scott's; bangles and diamond stud earrings. You were now slipping on your black, strappy Stewart Weitzman heels. A whole new outfit, per Chris’ instructions. You looked so fancy, you hardly recognize yourself. As much as you didn't want to think it, you looked beautiful. 

"Wow," Scott says coming back in the room, "Chris is gonna have a heart attack. He's almost here by the way." 

You go out to wait in the living room for Chris to arrive. 

As you are walking out to the living room, Chris walks in the front door. He stops mid step and just stares at you. You become very self-conscious and look down to smooth out the imaginary wrinkles in the dress. He comes up and a takes your hands; stops your fidgeting. 

"You are so beautiful, Baby," he says and kisses you softly making you blush.

"Thank you, Chris." 

You take his hand and he leads you out the door to the car and opens the door for you. On the way to dinner you realize he’s that you are getting closer and closer to home, albeit a long way home, but home none the less. 

"Are we going home?" 

"Yes," he replies. 

"Did you forget something?" 

"No." 

You're thoroughly confused now and give him a questioning look. He simply chuckles. He pulls on to the driveway and in to the garage. He tells you to stay put, but only for him to come and open your door. He helps you out and then covers your eyes.

“Chris what are you doing?” You giggle.

“It’s a surprise,” he says, “I’m Sorry we aren’t going out like I originally wanted, but I think you will really like what I set up here.”

He walks you into the house and into the family room you think. He uncovers your eyes and sitting there is his family and yours along with some friends. You're dumbstruck. 

Scott and Ashley walk in however and Ash brings you out of your stunned state. "Surprise!" She yells. 

"What is going on here?" You ask. 

"Well," Chris begins, "when we decided to go public I called my mom and my family wanted to meet you immediately, so, I flew them all here. I figured we would have an extra day or so, however. I really had planned on taking you out. When they told me they wanted to have dinner tonight I thought it would be a perfect time to meet your family, too, San Diego County isn’t that far away." Chris explains. 

"So, I called your mom while you were trying clothes on and explained what was going on and they drove up from Oceanside." Ashley says.

Chris then leads you over and you meet his family; mother, Lisa father, Robert, and sisters, Shana and Carly. Their significant others have been left home with the kids. Chris' best friend, Tara and her husband, Jason were here, too. You had met Tara just recently, but hadn't gotten to meet her husband. Ashley had also called your cousin and her husband and Chris flew them in from Phoenix. 

"This is amazing," you say pulling him into a tight hug. "Thank you, this is perfect." 

Almost every person you love all in one room. 

Everyone moves outside to where Chris has large rectangular table set up for everyone to fit around. There are two servers at either end. You all sit down and there is a small menu in front of you. On it are two starter options; a salad or soup, a main course steak or chicken option and five side options and three desert options. Knowing Chris he's paid enough money for everyone to have one of everything, plus seconds. You two sit in the center and your family and friends spread out around you, your mom on the left of you and Chris' on the right of him. Having everyone emanating so much love around you, you now regret not doing this sooner. 

Looking closer at the menu you realize the catered food comes from the little bistro in Temecula you had your first date at. It was quiet and secluded. His friend owns it so there were no worries about being sold out to tabloids. All of your favorites and his were chosen for the menu tonight. This was closing in on being one of the best days of your life. 

Dinner has been lovely and you’re sad it’s going so quickly. Everyone has just chosen their deserts and Chris stands and pulls you up with. "I'd like to make a toast."


	8. Chapter 8

"I'd like to make a toast," Chris states, "Well, actually, I'd really like to just say a few words. This past year has been amazing. I've fallen irrevocably in love with this incredible woman standing here with me and I can't express how happy I feel to have all of us here together. It has been a long time coming, too long. Thank you all so much for being willing to come out here on such short notice. And thank you y/d/n," he says now addressing only your father, "for not knowing me at all, yet giving me permission for this." 

Chris then drops to a knee in front of you and produces the box with your ring inside. "Y/n, I know we said eventually, but I know there's absolutely no one else I'd rather be with than you. Eventually is too long when you know you've found your forever. Y/n, will you marry me?" 

You don't even hesitate, "Yes! Yes, of course yes!" 

He jumps up and kisses you hard amidst everyone's cheers erupting around you. He pulls back to place the perfectly fitting ring on your left hand. 

"You really asked my dad first?" You say through the tears.

He chuckles, "Yeah, my Ma raised me right." 

He kisses you one more time before your families pull you apart to congratulate you both; you go to your mom and dad first and Chris goes to his mom and dad, then switch.

After all of the congratulations you sit for desert, these are all your absolute favorites. This restaurant is the only place you two even consider looking at a desert menu. 

You chose the gluten-free chocolate soufflé. Chris chose the apple pie with ice cream. He knows how much you love that desert too and he lets you pick off of his plate. Bless this man for sharing his desert. 

When desert is finished and conversation is dwindling your families slowly begin to file out to head back to their hotels. You are so glad your parents aren’t going home tonight and you had made plans to meet for breakfast then next morning at Urth Caffé. You hug them goodbye and you and Chris are back in the doorway saying goodbye to the last of your guests. 

"Second dinner party successful," Chris says smiling. 

"I can't wait to do more of them," You say and kiss your fiancé. You smile at the word in your head, 'Fiancé' 

"What are you smiling at?" Chris asks. 

"Fiancé," you reply. 

Chris smiles as well, “Yeah, I really like the sound of that, too.”

The two of you file into the bedroom. Chris goes to the closet and you grab sexy night gown from the dresser while he’s preoccupied. You head into the closet as he is heading to brush his teeth. You change into the night gown while he is brushing and wait for him to leave the bathroom before emerging to freshen up a bit. Once you have finished you go and stand in the doorway, leaning on the frame as seductively as possible. Chris looks up from his book and his jaw slackens. You walk over and take the book from his hands and place it on the bedside table and move to straddle his hips.

“Well, hello,” he says as he grips your hips and sits up a little straighter to kiss you.

“Hi,” you say as he pulls back. “So, I was thinking,” you begin and he cuts you off.

“This doesn’t sound good,” he says.

“Don’t be mean,” you say laughing and playfully smack his shoulder. “I was thinking that, maybe, it might be nice to, you know, not have sex before the wedding. To make our wedding night special.”

Chris is silent. Contemplating?

“Is that what you really want?” He asks

“Yeah, I think so.” 

“Okay then,” he says, “But, after I have my way with you tonight.”

Chris flips you over and kisses you hard and passionate. Maybe celibacy isn’t such a good idea. 

*~*

The next morning you wake up and Chris is playing with the ring on your hand. 

"Hi, future wife," Chris says. 

"Hi, future husband," you reply. 

You two cuddle in silence a bit longer. 

After a while you speak, "Are you going to tell Susan you proposed?" 

"No, Nick is firing her today. He spoke with Josh about it yesterday. They and I have decided that my best interest is not her concern so it's best if we part ways. I text Lily and told her I was sorry, but I couldn't partake in a fake relationship since I was already in a real one." 

“Wow, it’s no joke when Nick calls your agent.”

Chris laughs a little and then pulls you close. “You should meet her for coffee, like she asked.” 

Chris leans back and stares at you like you have two heads. 

“Why would I do that?”

“She’s just looking for a little publicity boost right? I mean when was the last time she was in the news? She’s just trying to stay relevant, you remember what that’s like,” you say.

“How is it you can be so mad about it one day and then rationalize it the next?” he chuckles. “You really want me to do this?”

“Sure, I mean I have breakfast with my family. I mean, if you go meet her I will be alone with my family and I’m sure I am going to get reamed for not telling them about you sooner, but that’s okay. And you can tell everyone you are just friends in a few days, right?”

“I guess that would be okay. I’d like to hear her apologize for all of this, too, anyway,” he shrugs. “You really do have such a big heart, it’s part of why I am so in love with you.”

The two of you get up. He grabs his phone to text Lily and you get up and you get up to get ready to meet your family. 

Before you leave you go and kiss Chris. He informs you that he is meeting Lily at The Coffee Bean just up the street from Urth Caffé. You both agree for him to join you when he’s finished and you kiss goodbye.


	9. Chapter 9

You are pleasantly surprised when you see not only your family waiting in the small café, but Chris’ family, too. You see them all sitting together mingling and you love the thought of all of you getting together for holidays. Easter at the Evans’ and Thanksgiving at your parents. Maybe even Christmas at yours and Chris’. That is if you could get him to give up having a white Christmas for once. 

After standing and watching the scene in front of you for a few moments you join your family and friends at the table and you get hugs and more congratulations all around. This was absolutely the best feeling in the world; and to think you could have felt it sooner. 

“Where is Chris?” Lisa asks. 

“He’s getting coffee with Lily up the street, he should be here in a bit”

The table gets quiet. Apparently everyone knows about the Lily situation.

“Why is he with her?” Scott asks.

You explain that even though he should have been informed and asked about this publicity stunt first, you both understood why she needed it, and that the two of you decided that a quick coffee so she could be seen with him to create more speculation and get an apology would be okay. You tell everyone that his manager, Nick, and agent, Josh, fired his publicist and when he gets a new one a statement will be made about them just being friends. 

Everyone seems to agree with what he’s doing. He’s being kind to her which is one of the many reasons why you agreed to marry him. In fact if it hadn’t upset you so much he probably just would have let the press run with it like he always does. 

The server comes over and tells everyone the specials. The bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Marys are popular among your table as most everyone has ordered it. When the beautiful blonde server comes back with everyone’s drink of choice she takes our food orders. 

Your mothers are talking recipes and telling war stories from when you and Chris were little. Lisa definitely had the worst of it, Chris was a little shit as a kid. You hear you fathers talking about football and cars. Your cousin and her husband are talking to Chris’ sisters and you are chatting with Tara, Jason, Ashley and Scott. 

Chris walks in just before the food arrives. He walks over to his mother and kisses her on the cheek and shakes his father’s hand. He repeats the same with your mother and father and then for the first time in public takes the seat next to you and kisses you. You are so blissed out you don’t even care who sees or takes a picture.

“How was it?” Lisa asks.

“She’s persistent and a little pushy; I can see why she’s successful, and single. It was fine though, she apologized. She said she knew I wasn’t aware, but had been assured by Susan that it wouldn't be a problem. She tried relentlessly to get me to reconsider. Even had the audacity to grab my hand at the table,” Chris gave a sideways glance to you, then continued, “I told her that in a few days I would release a statement about her and me just being close friends.”

“How did she take that?” His father, asked.

“She was a tad upset, but she relented and knew I wasn’t going to change my mind.”

You run your hand through his hair and kiss his cheek, “Talk when we get home?” You whisper just loud enough for him to hear. He nods and then leans and kisses you again.

The food arrives and you share your breakfast burrito and fruit with the man you love. He has forgotten his coffee with Lily and is now completely present and in the moment with you. Chris is all smiles while sharing your breakfast as your parents start telling childhood stories about each of you, much like the conversations were last night. Even though you are thoroughly embarrassed, it’s okay. This is what it will be like now for the rest of your lives and you could not be more excited. 

Eventually the meal ends and Chris generously pays the whole bill, much to the dismay of both of your fathers. Everyone says their goodbyes. Chris’ parents and his friends Tara and Jason will be sticking around for a few days, but his sisters need to get home to their families. Your parents are heading back to Oceanside and dropping off your cousin and cousin-in-law off at the airport because they also need to get home. You make plans to have the remaining guests for dinner tonight and Chris and you head off for your cars. 

Chris walks you to your car before heading to his own. He opens your door, but places his hand on your cheek and pulls you in for a kiss before he lets you get in. 

“I’ll see you at home, Baby,” he says before he shuts your door.

*~*

At your place you realize that you really don’t have enough food to make a proper dinner for a group of people. About that time Chris had arrived home.

“Remember how you said you really just wanted to be able to the grocery store with me?” You ask with as cute of a puppy dog face as you can manage, he’s really much better at it than you are.

He laughs and comes up to hold you close, “Don’t have enough food for dinner?” He asks.

You shake your head no and smile up at him.

“I wish I could but I have a meeting with someone at Sunshine Sachs and Hemsworth’s publicist, Robin, at Slate this afternoon. I have to clean up what Susan did as quickly as possible. You are my fiancé and I want everyone to know, Baby.”

“Fine, I can go by myself,” you capitulate. 

“Enchiladas?” Chris asks

“You want me to make my enchiladas?” You giggle.

“Yes, and your homemade rice and beans, oh, and tacos. Please.”

You giggle again at his enthusiasm and pull back to kiss him; you grab your keys and head out the door to get everything you need for dinner tonight. You have to admit you are a little surprised he asked for your Mexican food. It’s not that it isn’t good, you just assumed he’d want your pasta bolognese or lasagna.

You make quick work of your shopping trip and you are home in under two hours. You unload all of the groceries and put them away. You head to your room to put on some comfy sweats to wear while you cook. On your way back to the kitchen you turn on the television on in the family room for background noise while you work. 

You grabbed a large pot to boil the pork and another for the chicken. It was always best to use the crock pot to shred the chicken and the carnitas, but with such short notice this would work just fine. While waiting for the water to boil you started on the rice and beans. You had just put the pork and chicken in their respective pots to boil when you hear Chris’ name on the television.


	10. Chapter 10

You stop everything and walk over to the television. You stupidly had it turned to Extra and there was Mario Lopez again talking about Chris. Don’t these people have anything better to do than to talk about him, surely Angelina Jolie adopted another child or something? 

“Chris Evans steps out for the first time today with Mortal Instruments star Lily Collins. On lookers say they were very flirty and seemed very much to be on a date. Someone tweeted in a photo of the two getting cozy and holding hands. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.” 

‘Of course no one tweeted in a picture of Chris with me,’ you say to yourself. That bitter feeling is coming back. You push it aside, however, because you can clearly see the distance between them in the photo. ‘Cozy my ass.’ It was always a possibility he would be photographed. You knew that when you had told him to go. 

You decide to call Chris and let him know what is going on. You head to the kitchen and grab your phone and dial his number. He answers on the first ring, “I just saw it,” he says. “I didn’t see anyone taking photos, and I promise that it isn’t what it looks like.”

“Chris, I know it’s not what it looks like, I’m not concerned about what they have said. Eventually there will be cameras that catch us together and it will be okay. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was going on.” You are surprised at your laid back attitude, but there has been something so freeing about letting everyone in. Not caring, it’s changed your perspective.

“I love you, you know that?” You could hear his smile in voice. 

“I know, Babe, I love you too.”

“Alright I have to go I have a meeting with a potential publicist, I will be home right after.”

You go back to the kitchen and return to preparing dinner for your friends and Chris’ parents. Focusing on cooking really helped keep your mind occupied. Once the meat is cooked you mix them in with a special blend of spices and put them in some of the enchiladas and then put them in separate bowls for the tacos. 

Chris comes home he seems pleased, but you can tell something isn’t quite right. He doesn’t have time to go into detail about what happened because your guests have started arriving. Chris sets up the taco bar on the island and you pull the enchiladas out of the oven. You let everyone know what kind each pan is; carnitas, chicken and cheese. 

Once everyone is dished up you all sit around the patio table. You are so nervous for everyone’s reaction. You rarely cook for anyone but Chris. The group is quiet until they take their first few bites.

“Y/n, this is amazing,” Tara says. 

The rest of the group agrees with all of their mouths full and you breathe a sigh of relief. Much of the meal is eaten in silence with small amounts of idle chit chat. Ashley is the one to break the silence with the big topic though. 

“So have you guys talked wedding plans at all?”

You nearly choke on your mouthful of rice. “No, Ashley, we haven’t” you laugh at her assertiveness.

“Well we should start thinking about it,” she says.

“We?” You ask with a small laugh.

“Yes, we, just ‘cause you’re Miss; soon to be Missus, big shot wedding planner doesn’t mean you can do it all yourself.”

“Fair point, when we, and by ‘we’ I mean Chris and I, start planning you will be the first to know.”

You would love to say the wedding talk ceases, but after dinner the men go into the house and do the dishes and talk sports, mostly football. The women stay out on the patio and Lisa casually begins asking about your job as a wedding consultant and event planner, how you got interested in it and schooling. You ended up mentioning your final project was having to actually plan your own wedding. 

“Well, what did you plan for yourself,” she asks.

“Oh, you sneak, you did that on purpose,” you laugh.

Lisa simply shrugs and waits patiently for you to respond. 

‘Crap.’ You sigh and know that there is very little chance of you getting out of telling her exactly what you had envisioned for yourself. You hadn’t even told Chris what you wanted and you couldn’t really fathom telling anyone else first, even his mother and his and your best friends. You know you have to give them something though. 

“Well, I guess, I always really wanted a winter wedding. I never lived anywhere with a lot of snow, so I want to go somewhere where there will be snow. I also never wanted the traditional white dress; I was thinking silver or light grey. I like the idea of the bridesmaids wearing something bold like red. Or maybe black with red accents.”

“That sounds beautiful,” Tara says.

“You know we get snow in Boston,” Lisa pipes up.

A Boston wedding would be beautiful. They have so many old cathedrals to choose from. The setting really could be everything you had imagined. Thoughts begin to run rampant until Lisa pulls you from your reverie.

“You okay, sweetie?”

“Yeah, I was actually just really contemplating Boston for a wedding destination.”

“Boston, huh?” Chris says as he walks in with the other guys. 

“Yes, y/n was just saying she’s always wanted a winter wedding with snow and I suggested Boston and she seems like the idea,” Lisa says proud and rather excited at the prospect of having her son’s wedding in his hometown. 

“I’d be happy to do that, but you really will have to think about how your family will feel if you don’t get married at the G.T.” Chris reminds you.

“The G.T?’ Tara asks.

“The Grand Tradition,” Scott begins, “It’s an absolutely gorgeous wedding venue her family owns near her parent’s home. Gorgeous building made to look like a Victorian era mansion and you can get married out back by a lake and a gazebo. The bride can enter by horse and carriage or 1930s car.”

“Or there is the new water fall ceremony site,” Ashley chimes in, “and all of the gardens are stunning. Three of your cousins have been married there right?” 

“Yes, Adam got married their twice though,” you chuckle darkly. He’s never had very good taste in women. His current wife is definitely a keeper. 

“You don’t want to get married there?” Lisa asks.

“Alright enough wedding talk,” Chris says. He could tell you were reaching your limit with it and he skillfully changes the subject. 

The night goes on wonderfully and you say good bye to everyone. You hug Chris’ family and friends hard as they are going home tomorrow. You head back in as Chris is saying his goodbyes. He is going to miss them a lot. He hates being so far from his family.

Chris shuts the door to your home and turns to walk to you sitting on the couch. He is so gorgeous and you can hardly believe that he’s yours and that he wants to spend the rest of his life with you. He sits next to you and throws his arm around the back of your head and he pulls you close to him. You rest your head on his chest and he rests his head on the top of your head. 

“So, what’s bothering you?” you ask Chris. 

He laughs a bit. He should know by now you always know when something is off.

“I’m just tired and I’m also just tired of this whole Lily rumor, I guess. I didn’t get to meet with Hemsworth’s publicist today, she got an emergency. I didn’t really care for the guy I met at the other P.R. firm. Can we just go to bed?” he sighs. 

“Yeah, Baby, of course.” 

This is getting to him. He doesn’t like the spotlight. He loves what he does and he puts up with the lack of privacy because he loves it, but sometimes it can become overwhelming. 

You sit up and take his hand and help him stand. He holds you close before you walk hand in hand down the hall. Once you reach the bedroom Chris grabs you and kisses you passionately and he moves you toward the bed and lays you down. 

“You are amazing,” Chris says as he hovers a few inches above your face, “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Are we still waiting?” You ask.

“Shit, I forgot.” Chris pauses a moment, “You really want to wait?” He finally asks

You go to respond, to tell him if this is what he needs he can have it, always, but he talks first. “Sorry, of course we are going to wait,” he kisses you hard and then moves you up the bed and simply holds you. And that is where you both fall asleep, still dressed.


	11. Chapter 11

You wake up again with Chris not in bed with you. This was becoming an unwelcome habit. You lay there a bit longer hoping he was just in the bathroom, but after a few minutes you sit up. His phone isn’t on the charging dock so you decide to get up and see if he’s home or out. It’s just after eight in the morning so he could be at the gym or getting a coffee. 

Chris is sitting in the family on with the news on in the background. He is leaning back on the couch and he is staring blankly at the laptop resting on his lower abdomen. He looks up when you come in the room and he sits up and puts the computer on the coffee table. He sits up and gestures for you to sit. 

“So, it’s bad,” Chris says.

“What is?” 

“Lily confirmed that she and I are in a relationship to the press today.”

“She did what!” you scream. “How is that even possible? She can’t do that to you. What is she thinking? Why would she do this?” You are completely rambling and you aren’t sure your sentences are even coherent at this point, but it is far too soon after you have woken up for bombs like this to be dropped. 

Chris is eerily calm for all of this. Why isn’t he more upset about it?

“Say something,” you tell him.

“I should have known better than to go meet her. She seemed so sweet; I never thought she would be capable of something like this.”

He’s not calm, he’s upset; but he’s more upset with himself than her. You know you have to get him out of that mindset immediately. 

“This is not your fault. If you’re going to go blaming other people than the actual person responsible, blame me. I am the one who told you to go, this is my fault. If I had let us come out as a couple long ago, like you had wanted, we wouldn’t be in this position either. This is all on me,” you rant.

“No, it’s on her. She’s desperate for the spotlight again. I just wish I knew where she was going with this.

You two don’t have time to wonder long. You hear your phone going off in the bedroom. You recognize the set ringtone and know its Ashley. You run back into the bedroom to get to it before the call goes to voicemail. 

“Hey,” you answer breathless.

“Oh, you’re up, you know then?” 

“I can’t believe she’s telling people that they are together. This is ridiculous,” you say with hints of rage in your voice.

“I really can’t believe how she is portraying you,” Ashley replies back

About that time Chris has entered the bedroom and you have turned to look at him. You place the phone back down on the nightstand and put it on speaker.

“What do you mean how she is portraying me, Ashley?” 

Chris comes up to wrap his arms around you from behind as Ashley speaks.

“Well, I suppose it’s not her exactly, but her confirmation came last night sometime and then photos of Chris walking you to your car after brunch surfaced. Chris it makes you look bad. They have a side by side of you with Lily holding hands and then you saying goodbye to y/n. Caption is ‘Captain America’s Chris Evans isn’t quite as moral as his character, Steve Rogers, seen getting cozy with two women within hours.’ Anyone with half a brain can see that you don’t even want to be in the same place as Lily, Chris. You look uninterested, plain as day.” 

Bless your best friend for trying to console you both right now. You definitely want a do-over now and want to go back in time and tell her the day you started dating Chris. Although she would have had you married with babies already. 

“What’s the website you are seeing these on?” Chris asks her

“I’ll email you the link.” 

You head to the home office and open your laptop. The email is there by the time you get logged into your email. You pull up the article and there are the side by side photos of Chris with each of you. You only make it through the first part of the article. You can’t stand to read of this utter crap bashing Chris for being a womanizer and you for being a home wrecker. Thinking about the irony of that makes you laugh out loud and shake your head. 

“I’m the home wrecker.”

“I have to call Nick and Josh; we have to get a handle on this. They can say what they want about me, but this bullshit about you has to stop.” 

With that he stalks off and leaves you alone with Ashley. “He sounds furious,” Ashley notes.

“He is,” you collapse in the desk chair and sigh loudly. “This is so messed up. I never really wanted a public relationship with Chris. I honestly didn’t even think he and I would even be serious, let alone be getting married. And now, all I want is for everyone to know he’s mine and they think I am just some skeezy other woman.”

“Chris is gonna fix this sweetie, okay? Do you have any appointments today?”

“No, Jessica is going to be handling a lot of the appointments this week. I need her to start being able to handle events on her own instead of just assisting on mine, my company is getting too busy for me to be the only planner.”

“Fabulous,” Ashley says. Scott and I will be right over. I’m calling Brooke too. We need a serious cheer up spa, shopping, wine drinking day. Plus Brooke should really be in on all this.” 

Chris comes back in and he tells you that he’s getting dressed, Nick is on his way over and they are going to meet with Robin Baum at Slate PR. You inform him that Ashley is bringing Scott and another friend, Brooke, over and the three of you are going shopping, getting manicures & pedicures and will be drinking. He laughs at you, agreeing this will be a good use of your time today. He also tells you that his mother and Tara are staying a while longer to wait for all this crap to blow over. 

“Would you mind if I asked if you would include them too?” He asks.

“Of course not!” You exclaim and pull up Lisa’s number immediately calling her.

*~*

All the plans in your day are set. Scott, Tara and Lisa are on your couch while you wait for Ashley to get there with Brooke. Ash is no doubt filling Brooke in on all of the current drama. Chris has just left with Nick. With such a large group of you and wanting everyone to have a good day Chris hired a driver for you all for the day. Part of you knows it’s more than a car service, he’s meant to be a body guard. 

Brooke and Ashley come through the open front door and Brooke comes rushing to you hugging you tightly. 

“I am so sorry you are going through this,” she says, “but we are going to get pampered and have a fabulous day.” 

You love Brooke and you’re very glad you have her with you today as well. Introductions are made and the driver arrives. You all file into the three row Chevrolet Suburban and are off to forget the worries of the day. And you fully thought that would happen until your driver informs you paparazzi are following.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a little short. I love reviews too. Constructive criticism, what you love, what you hate. Tell me. AND THANK YOU for over 1500 reads!!!

“How do they even know y/n is in here?” Brooke asks.

“Lucky guess?” Tara asks

“Who knows how they get their info, damn cockroaches,” Ashley says.

“So much for relaxing,” You say

“Chris did this,” Lisa says.

“What?” You look at her incredulously.

“Think about it, if you are seen out with his mother and brother and his best friend there will be different assumptions made then.”

Lisa made a strong point; it’s probably why the burley security guard was hired. Chris is going to rip the story to shreds. This knowledge put you a little at ease. There were five other people and a security guard with you though, so regardless you knew you were in safe hands. 

We pulled to our first stop, nails. The car pulled to the curb and a swarm of people with cameras ambushed you. This had to be Chris; these people were here waiting like they have been given your itinerary. The driver, whose name you learned to be Tom, came and opened the door. Brooke was out first, then Ashley. Tom halted your exit to let out Scott, Lisa and Tara from the very back. He wanted you to be last out, presumably to be able to safely escort you into the building. The women made their way in, but Scott hung back to help get you in safe and sound. 

Tom was on your left and Scott on your right, each had an arm around you. Questions were being shout at you, most you couldn’t make out because too many people were shouting; there were a few, however, you heard loud and clear. 

“How does it feel to be a home wrecker?”

“Why would you go after someone who’s taken?”

And the one that hit you the hardest, the question you even ask yourself, “Why would Chris want you when he has someone like Lily.”

That is the one that breaks you. You begin to cry and you are glad you are wearing sunglasses. You put your head down and reflexively you bring a hand up to shield your face. It just so happens it’s the left hand with the gigantic ring on it. This makes the paparazzi go crazy and they all have their own interpretations. 

“Are you and Chris engaged?”

“Is that a real ring or are you just trying to start a scandal?”

“You are engaged to someone and you are messing around with Chris? You get what you deserve.” 

You have a hard time holding back the sobs at this point. Chris probably meant well, but these people are cruel and this right here is why you never wanted to date a celebrity in the first place. 

Once you finally enter the salon you are pleased to find it’s vacant of any other patrons except your party. The sobs rack your body and Scott is holding you tightly letting you cry into him. Tom is in front of the door keeping the paparazzi at bay. Your friends all gather around you and sit you in a chair in the waiting room, letting you cry. Ashley was the first to speak, but her question was directed at Scott.

“What happened out there?” She asked. Her voice was low as if she were trying not to disturb you.

“They said some horrible things to her,” Scott says as he holds you tighter. Your sobs worsen for a few moments and then begin to subside. Lisa re-enters once you have fully calmed your crying. She’s had Chris on the phone and hands it to you. 

“Baby,” he says. You get up and walk away from the crowd of people around. You head to the back where the bathroom is. 

“Did you do this?” The anger is clear in your voice.

“What? No, of course not; I would have told you first,” he pauses and then corrects himself, “asked you first.” 

“God, I know, I’m sorry, I’m just upset.”

“I know, Baby, and I am so sorry. I don’t know how they know where you were going. I will figure it out. Also I spoke with Lily, neither her or her publicist actually confirmed a relationship. Someone claiming to be Lily’s rep did. She was going to back off, like we asked. I liked Robin. I hired her on the spot. She and Nick and Josh are communicating with Lily’s publicist. They are going to figure out what’s going on and who is trying to hurt us.”


	13. Chapter 13

You make your way back to the front of the nail salon and hand Lisa her phone back. Chris had told Lisa everything while you were incapacitated by your crying and while you were learning everything from Chris she had filled in the group as well. Someone was out to get you and that scared you. You all were already in the shop so you decided a mani/pedi wouldn’t hurt, but you were not going to subject yourself to any more of this torture today.

The pedicure was nice and relaxed you some. You were getting extra special attention at the request of Lisa, who had insisted on treating everyone that afternoon. You had someone using hot stones on your feet and legs while sitting in the massage chair. You also had a nail technician on either side of you, each with an arm in hand massaging. The girls were trying to talk wedding plans with you, anything to get you in a good headspace. Ashley, Scott and Brooke know you all too well and they know this could be enough to send you running. If it were any other man, it would have. But you meant it when you told Chris you wouldn’t leave. He was your forever. 

You concede and talk wedding ideas with the girls and Scott. They all really love your winter wedding idea, Lisa especially since you have decided you really want a Boston wedding. She grills you a little about whether you want an indoor or outdoor wedding, obviously indoor since it will be winter; you joke however that you want an outdoor wedding and people can just dress really warm. You tell everyone you want a real winter wedding and not a barely-Winter-almost-Spring wedding. You want snow. The date will be hard though. Anything near Christmas, New Year’s or Valentine’s Day seems cliché and you don’t want that, but it leaves very little options.

You told the others before about the color scheme you liked when you did your final project. You tell them you aren’t opposed to a black and gold theme, though, with maybe a pale blue accent color. It’s a winter wedding so bright colors weren’t the direction you wanted to go. Pink was one of your favorite colors, but you wanted something elegant and there was always something about black that seemed classy to you. 

“Chris was raised Catholic,” Lisa begins, “but I know he’s more spiritual now than religious. I don’t imagine you are an avid church goer?”

“No, I take more of a spiritual stance as well,” you reply.

“So, no cathedral weddings then?”

You pause to consider for a moment. 

“I have always dreamt of a big church wedding, like the cathedrals Boston has to offer,” You start, “I had imagined walking down a long aisle, amid stone walls and wooden pews with the white dress and the classic tux; but now I really like the idea of modern and unique. I guess I’m not completely opposed to church wedding, I just don’t think I envision it for myself anymore.”

“Well there are plenty of venues or churches to choose from,” Tara says. “I think I still have my wedding book, I can send it to you. It had all of the ideas I was considering along with everything we ended up doing.”

“That would be great, thanks. I can plan a wedding here with my eyes closed, I’ll need to research for a destination wedding and I can use all the help I can get.” 

“Well, we are all here for you,” Scott says.

After a bit longer everyone is finished. Tara hands you her earbuds and you give her a questioning look. 

“Plug them in your phone and crank up the volume, that way you can’t hear all the bullshit they yell at you.”

That girl is one smart cookie. And you were so thankful to her. You found the most consistently loud song you could find in your phone, “Going to Hell,” by The Pretty Reckless. It worked. All you heard on your way to the car was mumbled screams at you, nothing was clear and for that you were grateful.

The ride back to the house was a bit intense. Paparazzi followed you the whole way, pulling up to the sides and trying to snap photos. You only hoped the Suburban’s tint was dark enough not to see you through. 

Chris was there when you got home. He must have been waiting because he is out the front door before you are out of the car. Chris bear hugs you and you lose your composure again, crying into him. He shushes you and kisses you on the head and holds you a while. The others move to walk inside and the two of you follow. Chris is whispering how sorry he is while holding you close to his side and periodically kissing your temple. 

Once inside Lisa goes straight to the kitchen in search of ingredients for dinner, with not much luck. She enlists the help of everyone but you and Chris to go with the grocery store. Chris pulls out his wallet to hand her his debit card and Lisa all but laughs at her son’s attempt to pay for the shopping trip. The five of them head out and leave you and Chris to have some quality time. 

“How are you really?” Chris asks.

“It’s been a rough day. I’ll be alright. They were just so… cruel,” you shake your head and try and clear your head of the shouts ringing out in your ears.

Chris pulls you into his lap on the couch and holds you. 

“We will figure this out, Baby, I promise. Everyone will know the truth soon. I wanted to just sit down and make a statement, but Nick reasoned that it wouldn’t help find the person doing this. And they would just do something else to us, maybe something worse,” Chris pauses and sighs, “We just have to ride this out a little bit, Honey, okay?” 

You nod and hug him close. “I’m a little tired from today; I think I am going to take a nap. Would you like to lay with me?” You ask.

Chris agrees and he carries you bridal style to the bedroom and lays you on the bed. He climbs on next you and pulls you into his embrace. You like being the little spoon. Chris holds you close as you drift off into an uneasy sleep. You dream of paparazzi, tabloids and lies. You jerk awake and realize you are crying and Chris has awoken you from your nightmares, too bad being awake doesn’t make them go away.


	14. Chapter 14

Chris looks at you intently when he wakes you from your nightmare. He has tears forming too. Chris is very empathetic and has a hard time when people are in pain, especially when it’s those who he cares about. You push away the tears on your cheek and sit up. Chris sits up and faces you. Reaching up, you cup his face with both hands and pull him into a deep kiss. You want him to know, no matter how messed up things are, that you still love him and you aren’t going anywhere. 

“I love you,” you say.

“I love you.”

Just then there is a soft knock at the door. It’s Lisa; she informs you that dinner is ready. She went simple and just made spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and caesar salad. You sit down to eat in the dining room and Chris makes you a plate. You aren’t hungry, so you just pick at your food. 

Conversation is low, and the mood is heavy. The events of the day began to wear on everyone emotionally. Chris speaks up.

“Mom, Tara, I really appreciate you guys sticking around a while to help out. It’s hard being so far away from family, but it’s really nice to know that your will be here in a second if I ever needed. So thank you. And Scott, I can’t even tell you how amazing it is to be able to have you so close and I am so happy you and y/n are close.”

Before anyone can speak you turn to Ashley and Brooke, “I am so sorry I didn’t tell you two sooner, and I wish that I had.” You then turn to address everyone, “I wish that I had met everyone sooner. Despite the crazy events today, the weekend was amazing. I am so happy that I could meet you and you all could meet my family.” 

You begin to tear again. All of the events, the joy and the sadness had just weighted so heavily on you. “Excuse me,” you say and get up and head for your bedroom.

You just need to be left alone. You had an incredibly supportive family, but it was very small. You were used to being on your own a lot, and much as you appreciated Chris’ family and your friends being here for you, space was something you desperately wanted right now. 

A few minutes later Chris appeared in the doorway, “Everyone went home, it’s just us now.”

“I hope I haven’t offended anyone, I didn’t mean they all needed to leave.”

“No, they understand. This has been really overwhelming and they know we just need time together right now.” He pauses and walks towards you, “We’re gonna be okay.” He whispers while lying down next to you.

“I know, Honey, today was just stressful. And hurtful. They hate me and they don’t even know my name.” 

“They don’t hate you. They are just trying to sell headlines. It’s not about you personally, even though they are making it about you personally.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” you sigh, your voice cracking. “We were supposed to be seen going to lunch or shopping, something menial. Speculation would start and then it would be confirmed somehow and we would eventually be left alone. We should have waited for the Lily rumor to die down. We should have let them believe you were with the Hollywood Darling for a while. Telling people has been worse than I even imagined.”

“I know, y/n, I am so sorry. You’re right; it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I can’t take it back, and right now I can’t even fix it. I promise to make it better as soon as we figure out what is going on. For now, you are not allowed to turn on the television, google me or search me on any social media site or Youtube, listen to radio station where the disc jockey could possibly mention my name. I just want you clear of anything being said.”

Technology house arrest, awesome. You simply nod.

“I’m going to soak in the tub.” 

You kiss Chris and roll off the bed. Just like before, you grab your lavender bubble bath and turn on the television to binge watch “Friends.”

You have just sunk down when Chris comes in and undresses himself. He motions for you to scoot forward and climbs in behind you. He grabs the remote and changes it to “The Fall” and then sinks his hands in the water to wrap around your middle. You are quiet; relaxing and watching. It’s peaceful and content. It’s your own personal bubble, one that you have missed having since all this excitement began. 

He holds you safe and secure in his arms. You know how much this is killing him too and how much he needs this time as well. You watch a whole episode before either of you speaks. 

“We should probably get out,” You say leaning forward just a bit. 

Chris agrees and you both stand. Chris gets out and grabs both of you a towel. He helps you out and wraps a towel around your shoulders before wrapping one around his hips. He takes your hand and leads you to the bedroom. You really wanted to stick to celibacy before the wedding, but right now you just needed Chris to love you, and he did.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SO sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I have written this story almost to completion and I have put off posting because I like to 100% know where this story is going before I post something I wish I could alter. I also haven't fully completed this because I am fully invested in this little world I have created and I am not ready to leave it yet. That being said, there will be a sequel and a prequel of how they met. Let me know if you would be interested in either of those. I love reading your comments! It also makes me happy when I get kudos! I hope you all enjoy this.

The next morning Chris is awake and propped up in bed reading a script. He hasn’t noticed that you are awake yet and so you take a minute to examine him. You can’t believe he is yours. This kind hearted, gorgeous man picked you. He is completely engrossed in his reading. ‘He looks so handsome when he wears his glasses,’ you think. He’s trying to get a feel for the character he could be playing. You don’t think he ever realizes that when he’s doing that, he is subtly making facial expressions and almost unnoticeably mouthing words. ‘So handsome,’ you think.

“Good morning sleepyhead.” Chris says not even looking up from the script and pulling you out of your thoughts. “I can feel you looking at me,” he laughs.

You don’t say anything; you just force yourself under his arm and snuggle into his chest. He holds the script up so you can wrap around him. He lowers it and you lay there and read it along with him. It’s a peaceful morning, no television or internet. You were curious though as to what the news articles said about you. The paparazzi may have yelled horrible things to you yesterday, but they had to eventually realize how wrong they are, you were out getting your nails done with his mother for crying out loud. Maybe they did realize. 

“Your thinking is distracting me,” Chris says.

You question yourself on whether or not you should tell him you are curious about what the tabloids have said now. It only takes a moment for you to give in and tell him. He knows your thinking about something anyway, might as well be honest about it. 

“I wanna know what they’ve said,” you said meekly.

“What who said?” Chris replies mildly distracted.

“The articles.”

Chris sighs deeply, “No. No, I won’t have you subject yourself to that.”

“But it could be fine,” you counter. “I was getting my nails done with your mother; they had to have taken that into consideration. Why would the “home wrecker” be with your mother?”

“Please don’t,” he begs you. “I won’t stop you, but I think you should really consider what you could see before you look at any of it.”

You pull up your phone and call Ashley.

“Hey,” Ashley says when she picks up the line.

“Is it bad?” you ask.

She’s quite for a long time. It must be really bad. You now contemplate if you want to know at all.

“I mean it’s not good. Have you not seen any of it?” Ashley asks.

“Not since yesterday morning. Chris won’t let me put on the television or look on the internet. He doesn’t want me to be upset,” you reply.

“Well he may want to hear it. Put him on. He can decide if you really should know or not. Sound fair? If it means anything I think he is right, you should maybe not read or hear anything they are saying for the time being.”

You ignore the last part, but agree Chris should hear it first. You trust his judgement if he says you shouldn’t know then maybe you shouldn’t 

“Here he is,” you say and then pass the phone to Chris.

He holds the phone to his ear and you sit patiently waiting. He turns a little red in the face as he is listening to what she has to say. 

“Read it to me,” he tells her, indignation clear in his voice.

He sits a little while longer getting angrier by the second. If it’s even possible it sounds worse than yesterday, which at this point you wouldn’t be surprised.

“Send it,” he says and then Chris thanks Ashley, hangs up. 

Before you can question him your phone goes indicating a text and Chris opens it. He stares a moment leaving you an opening.

“Jesus, Chris, what now?” 

Chris shakes his head. You aren’t sure if he is telling you he doesn’t want you to know or just trying to clear his head some.

“Baby, just tell me,” you prod.

Chris rubbed his hands over his head a few times in a frustrated manner before turning to you and saying, “Baby, I promise you that I am going to fix this as soon as I can, but for now Josh and Nick are definitely right about needing to catch this person. Whoever it is has access to photos of us.”

“What does that mean, Chris?”

“It’s a photo from when we first met and started seeing each other; a selfie sort of photo. It looks older than it is, we’ve both been aged down slightly, but the article basically says you and I were engaged a long time ago, however we broke it off when I started to get more prominent roles, but my mother really loved you. It says that she is so desperate to get rid of Lily she is bringing you back around trying to push us back together. They explain away the engagement ring you wear as the one I gave you that you never took off,” Chris explains. “Seems everyone’s forgotten I went to the jewelry store on Friday,” he scoffs.

“They are attacking Lisa now?” Your heart hurts at that. She may be extremely close to her son, but she wouldn’t ever interfere in her son’s relationships. She’s let him play out some extremely long, messed up relationships. Lisa makes sure she lets her kids make their own mistakes so they can learn from them. Your mother was similar. It’s the kind of mother you wanted to be some day.

Lisa is probably aware, but you know you want to call and make sure she is alright. Then you remember the photo.

“Chris, someone has access to one of our phones. That’s the only place where that photo is. Who would do this and why? I mean who hates one of us that much to give a photo with a fake story?”

“I don’t know, but I am going to find out, “Chris says grabbing your face and kissing you hard on the lips. “And when I do, I will fucking end them.”

You have seen Chris mad before, but this is a level of angry you haven’t experienced. Don’t mess with his family. 

You take your phone back and look at the photo that was used. All Ashley sent over was a copy of the picture. You remember that photo. You were sitting on the couch here at his place and he had wanted a picture of you. You didn’t want to take one. You had had a particularly bad day and kept covering your face. He started tickling you and pulled you closer to him. He held the camera out and he stopped tickling you and he caught you both on camera between your giggles subsiding and your smile fading. He would do anything to make you smile. 

You decide you are going to stop hiding. You fling yourself out of bed and head for your dresser to grab undergarments.

“What are you doing?” Chris asks.

“Getting ready for work,” you reply over your shoulder heading for the en suite.

You hear Chris clambering after you. 

“What do you mean you are going to work?” Chris asks, you can tell by his inflection he thinks you are being ridiculous. 

“I mean just what I said, I am going to work. Someone we know is doing this, starting rumors,” you say as you are rifling around in the closet grabbing something to wear. “I am not going to be stuck in the house waiting this out. Who knows how long it’s going to take to flush out this person in our lives anyway.”

“I don’t feel comfortable with you going out alone”

“No one will be looking for me if I go out by myself. Besides as of right now there is no name yet right? They don’t know who I am so I am good to go.” 

“We don’t know what they know.”

“I’m going to work, Chris.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Comment, rate, favorite and follow =P Love you all!

Chris walks you out to your car in the garage and opens your door, forever the gentleman. He holds you close before letting you get in and kisses you softly. He hugs you tight and finally releases you to get in the car. He takes your hand and makes you look at him one last time before you sit.

“You turn around and come right back the second you even think you are being followed. Okay? I am not joking around here, this is your safety we are playing with right now, and much as I want to keep you here I understand you wanting to get out. But I am not kidding, alright? You come right home or call me if even one thing seems out of the ordinary.”

You can see the concern in his eyes and etched in his face. He is scared. 

Truth be told you are too, but you refuse to let it hinder your life like it has for so long. The second you are out of the gates of the housing development you breathe a sigh of relief, no paparazzi. The drive is easy. Well as easy as Los Angeles traffic can be. You were there by noon, much to Jessica’s surprise. You had told her you wouldn’t be. It was nice to see her hard at work and not taking the day off because the boss wouldn’t know the difference. 

“Hey, Jess,” you say when you are in the door.

“Hey, y/n, I thought you were staying home today.”

“You know I can’t sit still,” you reply with a chuckle. If she knows anything about what is going on in the tabloids she hides it very well. 

“There really isn’t much going on,” Jessica begins, “Yesterday I had a cake tasting with the Jacobsen bride and her mother, pulled some flower arrangement ideas together for the Clarke wedding and presented it to them, I had an issue with Amelia; but that was to be expected, she will only take meetings with you. I let her know you were sick and taking some personal time this week to get better. I told her that your main concern was to be healthy as not to get her sick before her big day.”

“Good thinking,” you praise.

Jessica continues to give a detailed run down of yesterday’s and this morning’s meetings and you are suddenly feeling very secure in giving Jessica far more responsibility. You decide now is a good time to tell her. 

“Could you do one more thing for me before you leave today?” You ask.

“Sure boss what’s up?” 

“I need you to put out an ad on Monster.com for an assistant.”

Jessica freezes a moment. She’s unsure of whether you are unhappy and are firing her and you can tell.

“I’m going to need a new assistant since you will be doing your own weddings from now on.”

Jessica jumps up and squeals in excitement. This is why you hired her, her unwavering enthusiasm. 

“Are you serious? I can take on my own clients now?” 

You merely smile and nod at her and she throws her arms around you like it’s Christmas morning and you just gave her the only thing she asked for.

“We will each need an assistant, so as soon as you get applications start interviewing. We will replace you first and then find you one. Obviously I have final say, but if you find someone you want as your replacement let me know.”

After a few more minutes of going over what the job advertisement should say you retreat to your office to call back your bridezilla, Amelia.

You spend the next few hours on skype with Amelia going over the final details that needed to be planned before the big day next month. Once all of that is taken care of you feel you have accomplished enough for the day and you tell Jessica she is done too. Jessica thanks you again for giving her the promotion and waits for you to walk down to the elevator together. The two of you get down to the lobby of the building that you rent an office space out of and there is a noticeable crowd standing out front. Los Angeles streets are busy, sure, but it’s never a static group. 

“Shit,” you mutter.

“What’s the matter?” Jessica asks. 

She seems to see nothing wrong with the crowd that has assembled out front.

“Oh, nothing I just forgot a file I need. I will see you tomorrow,” you say and turn back to the elevator bank. 

You head up to the safety of your office and lock the door once you are inside. There was no real reason, just for your own peace of mind. You went into your office and sank down into your chair. You called Chris immediately. 

“Hey, Honey, when are you coming home?” He asks.

“Well, I don’t know,” you say and before he can question you, you continue, “I was heading out with Jessica and when I got to the lobby I noticed a rather large group of people that were congregated by the front doors. I could be being paranoid and it could be nothing but you said if anything seemed out of the ordinary to call you.”

Chris stops you right there, “No, you were right to call; I don’t want you walking out of that building alone, definitely not driving alone. Sit tight for a bit. I am going to call Nick,” Chris says.

You hang up and wait for him to call back. It seems like an eternity before he finally rings you back.

“Nick is coming to get you. I think he will have Eric with him so one of them will drive you and the other will take your car home,” Chris explains.

“I locked my office door,” you tell Chris.

“Okay, I will let him know. He will knock three times. It’s going to be okay, Baby.”

“I know. Thanks, Hon.”

“I love you.”

“I love you,” you say. And with that you hang up to sit and wait.


	17. Chapter 17

You don’t have to wait too terribly long before you hear three knocks on the main office door, but it is long enough for you to get a little more work done. You grab your things and head over to open the door to be faced with a very worried Nick. He generally doesn’t get nervous so you know what ever is going on out front is bad. 

“We are moving your office space,” he says. “It’s bullshit you don’t have a private parking garage in this place.”

You only roll your eyes in response as you step out the door and then relock it again. 

“So I don’t know if you down-played to Chris about what is going on out front, but it is an absolute shit show out there. You’d think there was a Kardashian in the building. Where’s the bathroom?”

“It’s just down this hall on the right,” you reply.

“Good, here,” Nick says.

Eric, Nick’s assistant, hands you a shopping bag. In it contains a change of clothes, shoes, a pair of large sunglasses, a large straw floppy hat and a long, brown wig. Smart. You go in and change. After putting it all together you think the floppy hat maybe too much. It looks like you are trying to hide yourself in that.

You come out with your work clothes and the hat in the shopping bag Nick had given to you. 

Eric takes it from you, “Good call on the hat,” he says. “I need your car keys. Where are you parked?”

You explain the location of your car to him on the way down to the lobby. When you get there the crowd you saw earlier had practically turned into a mob. There were easily twenty photographers out there now. 

“I am going to put my arm around you and I need you to act casual. You don’t look anything like you with this wig, but don’t overtly look up. Don’t let them get a good photo of you if they decide you’re someone they should be photographing. Take your ring off, too. They could match it up if they looked hard enough.”

Just before you exit the main building doors you slyly slip your ring off your finger and into your jeans pocket. You then put your left arm back around Nick’s waist and get close. You walk out the doors with him saying excuse me and pushing his way through the mass of people waiting around your building. They barley acknowledge you three as you make your way to safety. 

Once through, you let out a sigh of relief. You let go of Nick and relax some, though you don’t have the guts to look back. You make it to his car and hope that Eric can find yours. Nick calls Chris once you are both safely on the road with no uninvited followers. 

“Got her; on our way, man. We should be at your place in about 45 minutes.”

The drive does take about that long, but it feels like it drags on because you just want to get home. You are torn because you were really productive today and you were able to make an important decision in the growth of your business, which is something you strived for long before Chris came into your life. Part of you, however, did regret the decision to go to work. Chris was right, you were gambling with your safety. If you had walked out there on your own who knows what could have happened.

Nick interrupts your thoughts asking if you are alright. You pause before answering. Are you alright? Is any of this alright? You are letting yourself be tortured and to what end? For how long? You decide telling him you are okay would be a lie.

“As good as can be expected I suppose,” you reply. 

“Fair enough. You really had him worried. I’m not going to tell him how bad the mob of paparazzi was though. It will just give him more anxiety about your safety.”

You immediately feel guilty. You hadn’t thought about Chris’ anxiety. He normally only gets in on press tours, but you could see how it could rear its ugly head. Chris would do anything to protect you and to put him in the position where he was helpless to do that was really selfish on your part. No matter how productive the day had been, it just wasn’t worth it.

“How is he?” You ask, entirely guilt ridden.

“He took a Xanax after you left,” Nick says. “He was fine until you called about the ambush of photographers. Scott’s over now keeping him company. For his sanity and your safety, maybe don’t go back into work this week.”

You nod in agreement. 

Finally you are turning into your development and relief washes over you.


	18. Chapter 18

You rush inside to Chris and he holds you tight. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I should have stayed home like you had asked. I should have known better.”

He holds you and shushes you and tells you everything is okay. You know it should be the other way around. You should be comforting him. You know how worried he was. Yet he is the one calming you. 

Scott says a quick hi and bye and heads out the same time Eric is walking in with your car keys. You head into the kitchen to start dinner whilst Chris, Nick and Eric sit in the living room and discuss how to go about figuring out this culprit. It was what they were about to start doing before you had called and interrupted. They make a list of everyone the two of you know that knows about your relationship. The list isn’t that long: Chris’s family along with Tara and her husband Jason, your family, Brooke and Ashley, Chris’ manager, agent and publicist.

‘Susan,’ you thought. She would have had access to Chris’ phone. She could have gotten that photo no problem and she may still have been able to access Chris’ emails. She also could have easily made the call to the press ‘confirming’ his fake relationship with Lily. She also has motive, she lost her job over the rumor she helped start.

About the time you are about to say something Chris pipes up with the same thoughts you had just had. Nick agrees and gets up to step out and call Josh. Chris comes over to you in the kitchen and wraps around you from behind while you are at the stove. 

“I was just about to say Susan when you did,” you smirk at him.

“Not even married yet and we can read each other’s thoughts,” He chuckles.

“I draw the line at matching outfits,” you tease.

“Don’t worry; pink, animal prints and stilettos aren’t my style.”

You laugh together at his joke and Nick comes back in. 

“So, Josh agrees she could be the one doing this. He wants to just ask her flat out. He says he has had a good-standing relationship with her for the last ten years. He thinks she would be honest. She came clean to Chris when he told her he was upset about the rumors.”

“Why would she be honest about this, though?” Chris asks.

“He just thinks she will be with him. She’s not good when backed into a corner.”

“She shouldn’t be a publicist, then,” you say.

The boys hum in agreement. You offer to have Nick and Eric stay for dinner, but they each have plans. Chris and you are left to have the rest of you night in peace. You repeat the same as the night before; Netflix whilst soaking in the tub and then making love long into the night.

It was peaceful, but once you closed your eyes the peacefulness was over. Images of the mass of photographers waiting outside your office building flashed through your head. Remembering having to push through the hoard holding on to someone who wasn’t Chris gave you the shivers.

Chris felt them and pulled you close asking if you were cold.

“No,” you replied and told him exactly why you had shivered. 

For the second time since dealing with a throng on paparazzi you have had to be helped through the crowd by people other than Chris. Not to say it would be any more comforting, but it would be nice to have him be the one holding you. 

He holds you close now and apologizes for not being able to be the one there for you.

‘When did I get so weak?’ You question yourself. ‘Andrew,’ you think, ‘that’s when I got weak. I used to be confident and strong-willed. I believed in myself; had faith in people. Chris has restored some of that, but not all.’

“I can practically hear your thoughts you are thinking so loud,” Chris says to you.

“It’s nothing, Babe, go to sleep.”

He is too tired to argue, thankfully, but you know you will get questioned in the morning. That’s alright.

Just as you suspected, you were asked what you had been so deep in thought about before bed and you were truthful. You told him you were questioning your dependent and feeble behavior and wondered when you lost yourself. 

Chris never really knew the feisty, independent you that put up with no bullshit and never let anyone push you around or walk all over you. He met the version of you that Andrew turned you into. Distrustful, jaded, closed-off, fragile, and questioning if you really knew what love was. It turns out you didn’t, until Chris refused to let you push him away. He was going to help you through this. This crap won’t last long; you just need to figure out who is trying to destroy you two.

~*~

It had been about five days of hiding out. Brooke had been to see you; Ashley and Scott had work, but they promised to come by soon. Lisa and Tara had been a staple in your household, doing everything for you. It was getting a little obnoxious. At first not having to do any of the cooking and cleaning was nice, it was a big house. But just because you were upset didn’t mean you couldn’t take care of yourself. Their hearts were in a good place though, so you let them carry on. 

With the throng of paparazzi not giving up the next day you had forbidden Jessica from going to the office without some sort of escort. You were afraid the paparazzi would link her to you and then terrorize her on her drive home. You wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if anything happened to her. 

She had decided that if you couldn’t come to work she would bring it all to you. She had gathered all of the necessary client files along with your black book of preferred vendors and met you at Chris’ house. She was wonderful with him, too. There was no kind of star-struck school girl behavior that Ashley had. He was just a person. 

You both had gotten to work immediately that first day and fell into a wonderful routine of her coming over at nine o’ clock, Lisa making you both lunch around one o’ clock and demanding you both stop what you were doing at five-thirty for dinner. 

“Who needs a pricy high rise office, with no parking garage when you have a wonderful home office,” Nick says while joining you all for dinner one evening.”

“Me,” you say back with a laugh, “Although, if the house had a conference room I would definitely consider breaking my lease at the office.”

“You should break it anyway,” Tara says.

You look at her a little questioningly and she continues.

“Nick was right; there is no parking garage or security guard. It’s really not a safe building for you to be working out of.”

“She has a point;” Jessica says, “And with the growing staff adding two more desks will make it a tight fit for everyone.”

“Alright,” you concede, “I will start looking for another office space and speak to the landlord about breaking the lease.”

Chris grabs your hand and mouths the words ‘thank you’ and you know that you are doing the right thing. Chris has been so worried about your safety that he has hired, Tom the driver to just hang around out front and escort his mother and Tara back to their hotel every night. You had tried insisting they stay here, but they maintained they were comfortable at the hotel and really wanted you to have alone time with Chris at the end of the day. You were appreciative to them for that. 

Things had calmed relatively for you and Chris. Neither of you turned on any electronics with the exception of the Blu-ray player. Nick was keeping tabs of the tabloids and said as soon as Chris or I absolutely needed to know what was being said he would let us know. 

Tomorrow was Saturday and it was the day Josh was meeting with Susan. She had been out of town all week and she got in early Saturday morning. Josh wasted no time in setting up a meeting with her right after she landed. 

He gave her the impression that it would be a meeting to discuss a potential new client for her. He thinks she will tell him the truth, but he thinks if she knows why he wants to meet her she won’t show. 

You go to bed that night hoping the mystery will be solved tomorrow and you can both go back to your normal lives. Well, as normal as they will be at this point.

~*~  
You were a nervous wreck this morning. You just wanted to know if she came clean. Was it was even Susan? You hadn’t even considered the possibility that it wasn’t until this morning. What would you all do if it wasn’t? Lisa and Tara had lives to get back to. 

Lisa came into the living room and put her arm around you. 

“It’s going to be okay you know.” 

“I do, I just want this to be over. I want to go back to my life, plan weddings, plan my own wedding,” you sigh and let her coddle you a bit. Your own mom was a lot like Lisa and you were now grateful to have two amazing mothers.

You don’t notice Chris until you hear the shutter sound on his phone. He took a picture of you and Lisa having your sentimental moment.

“Now that,” Chris begins, “is going in the wedding slide show.”

You laugh and demand to see the photo. He says he will send it to you because he doesn’t trust you to not delete it if you don’t like it. Your phone dings and you pull up the photo of you and Lisa. It is a really sweet picture of the two of you. 

As much as you love Lisa’s cooking, Chris decides he’d much rather have take-away for lunch. He goes out for In-‘N’-Out for you all. You hadn’t been too hungry all week but you devoured the burger and animal style fries Chris bought you. 

“Don’t like my cooking much, huh?” Lisa teases.

“Don’t take offense, Ma, this girl could know this burger would kill her and she’d still eat it,” Chris says with a chuckle. 

“Hey,” you say with a playful smack to Chris’ arm, “I strictly draw the line at poison.”

Your light hearted moment doesn’t last long because Nick and Josh come in the front door, and neither of them looks pleased. 

“I’m sorry, Chris, it wasn’t her,” Josh says.


	19. Chapter 19

“What do you mean it wasn’t her?” Chris asks visibly distraught. “How do you know she is telling you the truth?”

Neither of you had really thought about or discussed the possibility of it not being Susan. I mean, she had the means and motive to hurt you both. How could it not be her? 

Chris holds you close to him and he sighs, ushering everyone into the family room to sit and talk about all of this and what the culprit not being Susan means for you both. 

“It wasn’t her,” Josh starts again, “Aside from Susan being visibly distraught at the news itself, she has basically an alibi.”

“What are we? Law and Order? How does she have an alibi for phone calls?” Chris asks.

“Susan left the country the evening we let her go,” Nick explains. “I have a few contacts at some of the local magazines and while they have too much journalistic integrity to give up a name they did say the person who called confirming the relationship called from a local area code, as did the person who gave your itinerary the day you were getting your nails done, same for the person who gave out the information about Chris’ fake prior engagement to y/n as well as whoever called to tip off where y/n’s office building is.”

“Journalistic integrity my ass,” Lisa says.

Everyone gets a small chuckle at Lisa’s input. 

“She could have has someone in her office make the call though,” you suggest. You are still unable to accept this nightmare isn’t over.

“If she was going to be a conniving bitch, she wouldn’t have someone else do all the dirty work,” Josh says.

You vaguely realize Josh is sort of friends with this woman, despite her mistake. If he trusts and believes her then you and Chris can, too.

“So where does this leave them?” Tara asks. Bless her and her beautiful heart. You can see she’s hurting over the fact that you two are hurting. It’s probably why her and Chris have been such good friends most of their lives. They are both people who wear their hearts on their sleeves.

“Well, we are basically back to square one,” Nick says.

“Can we have a moment with just the two of you?” Josh asks

“Of course,” Lisa says and she and Tara head for the backyard.

“I’m sorry, man,” Josh says, “But, I didn’t want to offend anyone.”

Chris nods, “What are you thinking, Josh?”

“This is someone close to you, either both or one of you. They have access to you. Access to your phones or computer,” Josh says.

“Who knows about you? Locally.” Nick asks.

Chris looks at you, “Well my Mom and Tara and Scott.”

You finish, “Ashley and Brooke are the only people I have told who are in the city.”

“No,” Chris starts,”You can’t possibly think it’s one of them,” Chris says.

Nick and Josh share a look.

You sigh and give in, “Lisa absolutely wouldn’t hurt Chris so you can rule her out. Scott has absolutely no motive so you can rule him out and Brooke didn’t know about any of this until after someone posed as Lily’s publicist.”

“You are really considering this?” Chris looks at you incredulously.

“Well it makes sense, doesn’t it?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous. Neither Tara or Ashley have motive to hurt either one of us,” Chris bites back. “It is not them.”

He’s getting mad again. You can’t tell if it’s because you are agreeing it could be someone close to them or that he let someone close enough to betray either of you. Either way you are upset he’s snapped at you. 

“Well that may be, Christopher, but someone is. All I want is my god damn life back and if that means looking at every angle I’m gonna fuckin’ do it,” with that I get up and storm towards the bedroom. You can hear Chris sigh as he gets up to follow you. You get to the bedroom and lock him out before he can get there. 

“Awe come on y/n don’t do this.” 

‘Don’t be ridiculous, huh? I’ll show you ridiculous,’ you think to yourself. You can hear Chris knocking and talking to you, but it’s unclear what he’s saying because you are now in the closet grabbing a duffel bag. You pack enough things for at least a week and then you go to your nightstand and grab your apartment keys. 

You unlock and open the bedroom door while Chris is mid-knock and begin to push past him using your over stuffed duffel bag as leverage. And it’s just enough to knock him to the side so you can make your way down the hall. Chris trails after you.

“Baby, what are you doing?” 

The fear is evident in his voice.

“Going to my apartment.”

He grabs hold of your arm, “Why, because I snapped at you? Baby, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

You don’t answer and pull away to continue out to the garage. At this point you have a full audience.

“Don’t you think I am just as upset about this as you are?” He shouts after you.

“Of course I know you are as mad as I am, but nothing is getting better and if you aren’t willing to look at all the possibilities then nothing ever will!”

In a rare moment you seem to have him speechless. You take the opportunity to walk out the door.


	20. Chapter 20

The drive to the apartment was horrific. The paparazzi were all waiting and they flew to attention when they saw you coming. They surrounded you the entire drive home. You slightly regretted leaving Chris’. You needed this space from him though, from everything going on. 

You were praying to the Gods when you pulled into your apartment parking garage in one piece. And you were also silently thanking them for giving your apartment a resident’s only parking garage. You shuttered to think about the headlines if they saw you with this duffel bag. 

You make it up to your apartment in one piece and thankfully with no run-ins with any of your neighbors. You take your duffel bag to your bedroom and dump the heavy bag on the bed. You unpack its contents and add the clothing to what little contents remain in the abandoned apartment. You put your laptop on the bed side table and carry the toiletries to the bathroom. 

After putting things away you pull out your cell. It had been on silent and since the drive to your apartment had required your full attention you hadn’t even thought to pull out your phone. You had missed calls from Chris, Lisa, Scott and Ashley; as well as voicemails and texts from the four of them. You decide to ignore all of it for a while longer not reading or listening to any of the messages. 

You weren’t leaving Chris, not that he knew that. You really just needed to get your head straight. You had to consider this could be Ashley or Tara. Could you really bring yourself to think about this hard enough to possibly rule out or confirm one of these women could hate you or Chris enough to hurt either of you two? 

Going into the kitchen to get a snack you realize there is no food in this apartment and you were not going to go out in the shit storm that was waiting for you outside. You give in and get your cell phone. You text Brooke, she was one person you definitely knew had nothing to do with the rumors surrounding your life. 

“Can you meet me at my apt?”

You don’t have to wait long for a reply

“Yes, of course r u ok?”

“Yah… I just rly need you…”

“Gimme 20”

A little over twenty minutes later there is a knock at your apartment door.

“Hey,” Brooke says, “What’s going on there’s like thirty paparazzi downstairs?”

She hugs you tight then pulls you to the sofa.  
You explain everything to her about Susan not being the one doing all of this and that it has to be someone close to either you or Chris. You tell her about your mini argument with Chris and just needing to get out. She tells you that you need to at least let Chris know that you are safe at the apartment. 

You agree and without opening any messages from anyone you start a new message to Chris simply saying, “im ok”

Before you start delving into a real conversation with Brooke you ask if she can do you a favor and go to the market to get some things for you to have while you stay here. She of course says yes and you hand her the list you had made while you waited for her to come. 

Brooke leaves and you decide to order a pizza for delivery. You and Brooke always get the same pizza every time; pepperoni and double pineapple. You wait a little while to make the order so the pizza doesn’t come before she is back from shopping. 

You and Brooke had just finished putting away all of the groceries when the pizza arrives. The guy hands you the pizza which you then hand off to Brooke. While you are signing the delivery guy is taking your picture. You can’t believe that just happened. You start yelling at him demanding he delete the photos and he only responds with no, they will be worth a lot of money to the photographers waiting for me downstairs. With that you slam the door.

He better hope he is going to get lots of money because Brooke was already on the phone with the pizza company before the delivery boy had walked… ran away. He will definitely be jobless by the end of the day. With being fired for taking pictures of clients he will never be able to use that job as a reference. 

“He seemed far too prepared to be taking my picture. He was using a real camera, not his cell phone. How could he possibly know it was my order?” You ask Brooke. 

“Maybe he recognized the name on the order?” She suggests.

You have had it with conspiracy theories for the day. You and Brooke spend the rest of the afternoon and evening watching funny movies and scary movies and some thriller and action movies. You knew better than to watch any dramas or romantic comedies. You spent the day getting out of your head, which you needed. Neither of you spoke about the heaviness weighting your mind down.

Brooke decided she needed to stay overnight with you, just to make sure you were safe. ‘This girl’s amazing,’ you think. She snuggled up on the couch and you went to your room after both of you made sure all the windows and door were locked. 

“You should tell Chris goodnight,” Brooke says to you as you begin the walk to your room. “He needs you, you know. He needs to know that you aren’t leaving him.”

You know there is truth in what she’s saying and for all Chris knows you just walked out of his life. You decide not to text but to call him.

The phone only rings once before you hear his deep voice on the other end. He has that sleepy rasp, but you know sleep is far from his mind. He’s most likely been crying or yelling or both.   
Chris bombards you with so many questions,“Y/n! Are you okay? Where are you? Are you on your way back?”

“Yes, Baby, I am fine. I am at my apartment and Brooke is here. She’s sleeping on the couch. I just need to be here for a few days, I need to clear my head of the craziness for a little while. I just need you to know that I love you and this is just something I need, but in no way am I leaving you. I realize that, that must have been what you thought was happening when I left earlier and I am so sorry. I was angry and I shouldn’t have left the way I did.”

Chris is now crying into the phone, tears of relief you hope.

“Also, I ordered a pizza and the delivery guy had a camera so let Nick know there is probably going to be that photo to deal with tomorrow.”

“You are okay, though, right?” Chris questioned.

“Yeah, he just snapped a couple photos while I was signing my receipt. He was ready though, he was using a real camera not a cell phone. I just don’t know how he knew he was delivering to me.”

“Tell me all of the restaurant info, I want Nick to talk to the manager and maybe the delivery guy. He may get out of him how he knew.”

You give him the information and tell him you love him one more time before saying goodnight. You haven’t slept alone in a while since Chris has been on a bit of a break. You certainly haven’t been in this bed. You hope that you can sleep tonight.


	21. Chapter 21

The next morning you awake to the smell of bacon. It’s early, just after six o’ clock. Brooke probably has to go into work early today. Or maybe the couch was just too uncomfortable to sleep on. You should have taken the couch. You didn’t sleep much anyway, and when you did you had dreams of Tara doing horrible things to you and Chris. Why you were so set on her being the one to do this you had no idea. Your subconscious was being a bitch.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” Brooke says coming in with a tray of food. 

“You’re chipper this morning,” you say sipping the perfectly made coffee on your tray.

“Well I was thinking of a way to lure out the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it’s good.”

“It must be if you are happy this early in the morning,” you joke. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

~*~

After a few days longer of being without Chris, you decided it was time to go home to Chris. You hated when he was gone for so long during filming or promotion. You can’t believe you willing spent three days away from him. You walk in the front door and you immediately relax. You hadn’t even realized that your apartment no longer felt like home until you came back to the house.

Chris scooped you up into a hug lifting your feet from the ground. You missed him. His arms were tight around you, face buried into the crook of your neck. You have your face buried into him as well. You breathe deep taking in the musky smell of him body wash and cologne.

“Don’t do that again,” Chris begs. 

“I won’t, I’m sorry. I just…”

He kisses you hard when you can’t finish your sentence. He knows. You were scared; you irrationally didn’t think he was on your side. He would always be on your side.

“Where’s your mom?” 

“Tara, Scott and my Ma are out shopping.”

“Will they be by later?”

“Are you saying you miss them?” Chris chuckles.

“Yes,” you laugh, “I spent the better part of three days alone, I have had my fill.”

“Well, they will be by. We were going to go out to dinner; I didn’t think you would be home. I’ll call and let her know that we are going to eat in.”

“No, don’t do that,” you say. “Have dinner with your family.” You two had decided that things were just worse with you two hiding, but he knew you were still scared about going out, so he wasn’t going to pressure you into going out. There wouldn’t be an official announcement, just going out together, like you had originally planned.

“You sure?”

“Yes, Chris. I need to get some work done anyway.” 

You kiss again and retreat into your office and text Ashley asking her to come over since Chris would be gone. After that you pull out files and start working on putting together presentation boards and color schemes and acquainting yourself with the two new clients you received this week. They would be Jessica’s clients, but this was still your company. You had gotten a lot done by the time Chris’ family showed up and Chris’ Mom was adamant about you coming with. 

“You are not hiding anymore, go get yourself ready. We are all going to dinner.”

You comply and head to the bedroom to change and freshen up. There really was no arguing with Mama Evans. You text Ashley and let her know you would be going out to dinner and asked if you could reschedule your girls night in. She’s thoroughly shocked you had agreed to go, but tells you it’s no problem to reschedule. 

~*~ 

As expected, there were paparazzi lining the street in front of the restaurant. The difference this time was that you were a little less afraid. Chris was with you, holding you tight. He had instructed you not to acknowledge any of the vultures you were about to walk by. He told you to look down and not talk to anyone. 

Things went smoothly on the way in. They were yelling for Chris to explain, but he just held you close and walked you quickly into Mastro’s Steakhouse behind his mother, brother and best friend. The photographers were a little nicer this time around, probably because Chris was with you. You are ushered up the stairs and to the left to a table near the balcony. Not very private, but at this point it really wouldn’t matter. 

Chris pulls out your chair while the maître d’ pulls out a chair for his mother and Scott pulls one out for Tara. Chris takes the chair next to you and drags it up close to yours. The dinner is going along amazing. You all get along so well and the jokes and laughter only cease for a small time when the entrées arrive. Chris hardly lets go of your hand the whole time. Either that or he has an arm slung around the back of your chair. 

You all stay for dessert and coffee, though you and Chris don’t order a desert. The only time you like dessert at a restaurant is from Chris’ friends restaurant in Temecula. Everyone was really enjoying the time spent together. 

A younger boy with his parents a few tables over catches your eye. You notice his Captain America tee shirt and point him out to Chris. Chris has a weak spot for child fans. The little boy makes eye contact with Chris and Chris motions for him to come over to your table. He is a little unsure and then tugs on his mother’s arm. He points to Chris and Chris motions again. She takes her son’s hand and walks him over to your table.

“Hey, Buddy,” Chris says, “I couldn’t help but notice your shirt.”

The little boy beams, grinning from ear to ear. “Cap, you’re my favorite superhero,” he says. “All my friends love Ironman, but he’s not as tough as you.”

Chris laughs and carries on a short conversation with him. He offers to take a photo and the little boy, Connor, and his mother head back to their own table. Chris sits back and leans into you for a kiss. You love seeing him interact one on one with kids that are fans. He is so amazing with them; he really will be a fantastic father one day. 

You all stay a bit longer and then head out. Chris and you take Lisa and Tara back to their rental car at Chris’ and Scott insists on catching a cab home. The paparazzi follow you all the way to the gates of your housing community. 

You say goodnight to the two women and head inside with Chris and wait for the headlines tomorrow.


	22. Chapter 22

You wake up extraordinarily nervous, you know it’s because you are going to look at articles about Chris for the first time in a long time. You lie in bed holding Chris a little while longer before turning and grabbing your phone from the nightstand. You exit out of the missed call, text message and voice mail notifications. Since you started showing in the tabloids people from your past are trying to reconnect. Or connect with you for the first time as they were never nice to you before your famous fiancé. 

You pull up google and search Chris’ name. Not unsurprisingly there are new articles about last night. The surprising part is that most of them are purely about his fan encounter. The photos are extremely adorable and you wake Chris to show him. 

Chris lets his eyes adjust to the morning light and he takes the phone from you. He takes his time and scrolls through most of the articles. He reads through them and nothing seems to upset him. That’s a good sign.

Most all of the articles focus on the little boy, as someone from inside the restaurant seems to have documented the entire encounter. The articles do note that he was with his family, a friend and, depending on the article, speculate whether you are his girlfriend or fiancée. At least no one categorized you as the home wrecking whore they were so quick to classify you as before. This was how it was supposed to be. 

Feeling slightly more positive today you decide to go out with Brooke, Ashley and Tara for lunch. Something low key, you were slightly out of the woods but someone you know was still trying to ruin what you and Chris have. You refuse to believe it’s anyone in Chris’ family, but you question whether you could really believe that it’s Ashley. No one seems to be a prime suspect, except everyone is a prime suspect. 

You push the thoughts from your mind and decide to enjoy lunch with the girls. You are glad you have had this time with Tara. You feel just as close to her as Chris is now. It’s nice having that with one of his friends. You feel it bonds you to Chris’ childhood a little more. Sure Scott is good for that as well, but this female, non-related perspective of his younger self is nice to have, too. 

You pick up Tara and meet Brooke at Border Grill in Santa Monica. There aren’t any paparazzi here, which is nice. Ashley is late, as usual. You three are sat at a table in the back gorging on chips with salsa, guacamole and queso dip when Ashley comes in, ever the over-dramatic human being storms into the restaurant straight to the back where you said you’d be sat.

“Damn vultures!” She exclaims as she sits.

“What are you talking about?” You ask.

“The paparazzi outside,” she explains, “I had to squeeze by them to get in here.”

“There were no paparazzi here when we got here,” Brooke says.

“Well, there’s a shit ton of them now.”

“Fabulous, I’d better tell Chris. I told him there were none so he didn’t have to worry.”

“I’m sure there is a back door we could go out later, Chris used to do that when he was first starting to get popular.”

That sounded like a good plan. You get up and go take a peek out of the front window. Ashley was definitely being over-dramatic. There was, at a maximum, ten photographers out front. Still you pulled out your phone and quick called Chris to let him know. He offered to have Nick drop him off so he could drive you girls home, but you declined. It really wasn’t very many and if this was going to be your life you had better learn to deal with it. That meant driving while being followed by paparazzi sometimes. 

You head back to the table in time to give your order. The rest of the lunch is spent gossiping and giggling. You have temporarily forgotten all of your worries. It was as if you all had been friends for years. The lunch went by far too fast and you had to get some work done this afternoon. You paid the whole bill and asked the server if you could slip out the back. She showed you the way out just past the bathrooms.

The second you step out the back you are temporarily blinded by flashbulbs. Damn, you should have knowns there would be some waiting out here. You make your way to the car with your head down and your arm linked with Tara. She offers to drive once at the car, but you decline and insist you can do it. 

Fortunately for you there aren’t any paparazzi immediately prepared to follow you by vehicle. The ride home is fairly smooth, only a couple bike photographers. They aren’t very aggressive with you, almost like they are going easy on you. Or maybe you just assume they are all barbaric assholes. 

You make it home and Chris isn’t there, which is fine. You sit and have a little one on one time with Tara. You get some fun, embarrassing stories of Chris as a teenager. You talk to her about wanting a family and what you want for your future with Chris.

Chris comes home a bit later, apparently from a meeting with Robin. You excuse yourself to the office. Chris has plans with his mother and brother for dinner anyway, so he takes Tara back to the hotel a little early to hang out with her a little before dinner. Throughout all of this he has had very little best friend time with her. 

It was nice to be back home with Chris, but you were happy to have space tonight to get some work accomplished. You also needed to coordinate meetings with Jessica. She has picked her final list of qualified assistant event coordinators. You wanted to interview them all, but you hadn’t wanted to go back to the office space, not that Chris would allow it. And you weren’t sure you wanted them knowing where you and Chris live.

You call Jessica and discuss the best way to interview the candidates. After twenty minutes of brainstorming you decide to have Jessica over to the house and then you two will Skype the potentials and then she will bring over the final two for an in person interview. 

You get a few emails sent and some appointments confirmed. Jessica calls you back and lets you know all of the interviews are set up for tomorrow afternoon and she would be by about one o’ clock. After you hang up you decide that you have done enough work and you shut down your computer and head to the kitchen to make a quick salad.

You get a text from Chris asking if you want anything brought back. You reply letting him know you just sat down to eat, but thank him for being so thoughtful. 

He texts back one last time, “I told her.”

~*~

You just put you dishes in the dishwasher when there is a knock at the door. You are sure you aren’t expecting anyone and it’s too late for a delivery. You look out of the peep hole and see Ashley.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” You ask, moving aside to let her come in. 

“Just wanted to come by and check on you after today,” she says. 

This is why she was your best friend. 

You go to the kitchen and pull out two spoons, two bowls and the cookie dough ice cream. You make the two of you each a large bowl and then you put in your favorite movie, On the Waterfront. You talk through most of the movie, however. It’s not like you don’t know it by heart. You really just take the time to really catch up with each other and fill one another in on everything. 

You used to know each other inside and out and lately you haven’t been able to spend as much time together. You make the most of the time you have and when the movie is over Ashley takes the bowls into the kitchen. She then hugs you hard and tells you that she’s so happy you met Chris. You show her out and then head back to the room to go to bed. Chris comes home not long after you have settled yourself in bed. 

Chris gets into bed and you snuggle into him.

“I told her,” you say.


	23. Chapter 23

The next morning is a whirl of emotions. You woke to many missed calls, text messages and voicemails, more than usual. You wake Chris and type his name into the Google search engine. The gossip sites, tabloid magazines and even the entertainment news programs have lost their minds. 

Breaking: Chris Evans is MARRIED!

Sorry ladies, it seems Marvel’s most eligible bachelor is now officially off the market. A source close to the couple reveals that the dinner outing the two had with Chris’ family the other night was really a reception as the two exchanged vows in a small civil ceremony at the couple’s home in Laurel Canyon. We are told the only people there were his mother and brother, the bride’s family has been decidedly absent, our source says is because they are unhappy with the relationship. We hope Lily Collins hasn’t had her heart totally shattered. There is no official word on the rush to commit; maybe we have a little Evans on the way? Either way, congratulations to the happy couple from all of us at Extra.

You are internally screaming. Married? Christ. Tears are slipping down your face. You aren’t totally sure why, part of you is certain it is because it’s a pre-congratulations to a wedding that hasn’t happened yet. You were strangely looking forward to reading the congratulations from the papers and here they were, a year too early.

“Time to get every single person over here, now,” Chris says.

Your phone calls go by quick; you only have two people to call: Ashley and Brooke. Chris is calling his mother, who will let Tara know about the “family meeting” you are about to have with everyone. He also calls Scott, Nick and Josh. 

While he is making those calls you call your mother. You know she has seen the newest headline and though you know she knows you wouldn’t dream of eloping, you still feel the need to call and reassure her. 

“Hi, Mommy.”

“Married, huh?” She says in greeting.

“No,” you sigh, “Just another lie, hopefully this will be over soon.”

“I hope so, too. How are you holding up?”  
“I am okay, had ups and downs; slowly becoming somewhat immune to all of these crap stories.”

“Just don’t get too jaded, Baby,” she says. 

We talk and catch up for a bit longer until Chris is done with his calls. You have a few hours to get ready before everyone is supposed to show up. You are scared. You are officially letting everyone know that you know that it is one of them. This isn’t going to go well. It can only end badly. Lifelong friendships are about to be destroyed.

Both of you take your time in the shared shower you took. You sit down at the vanity while Chris goes to the sink to shave the beard that has grown back. Not long later you both are dressed and sitting on the couch, waiting. 

Chris’ mother and Tara are first to show. Then Nick and Eric, followed by Brooke. Lastly Scott walks in and sits down followed by Ashley five minutes later. Everyone is finally here. 

You and Chris look around the room at some of the most important people in each of your lives. You aren’t sure where it comes from, but you get the courage to speak first.

“We are sorry for the cryptic reason we gathered you all here, but we felt it was time for a family meeting of sorts.”

“This morning the story was released that y/n and I were secretly married two days ago. A few days ago we were informed that the person releasing these pictures and false stories was someone close to us,” Chris says.

There is a pause. No one is quite sure what to say. You do, however.

“How could you do this to me, Ashley?” You ask.

She is speechless for a moment as is the rest of the room.

“We aren’t married, Ashley, I lied to you.”

“I’m sorry, Tara, I lied to you, too,” Chris says. He told Tara last night that you were pregnant. You were just waiting to see which story ended up as a headline. You were semi glad that it wasn’t Tara. Chris has a hard enough time with fake people sucking up to him and you were glad that he still had one real friend left.

It was a shame you couldn’t say the same for your childhood friend. 

“Well,” you ask again, “what have you got to say for yourself?” Rage was building at her silence.

“You knew how I felt about him and you went for him anyway,” she seethes.   
Is she for real? 

“What would you have had me done, Ashley? Say, ‘Hey it’s been great meeting you but you really should meet my super-fan BFF? I think you’d really hit it off.’ I’d ask you if you hear how crazy that sounds, but I am almost certain that you legitimately believe that I should have done exactly that.”

“I was in love with him and you went for him yourself, what kind of friend does that?” She screams back at you.

“It isn’t like I stole your high school crush, he is you stupid celebrity crush and you aren’t in love with him, you only think you are. You don’t even know him.”

“I know everything about him,” Ashley counters.

“You know what you have read online. I’d say that’s hardly everything,” you deadpan back.  
“Sure I know his favorite color and shit like that from the internet, but thanks to you I also know he likes to sext when you are both alone. Those are some naught pictures Chris, I’d be a shame if someone released those.” 

You sit there with your mouth gaping. How did she know that?

“You shouldn’t leave your phone unattended, y/n, someone might install a spy software app. I could access everything in your phone remotely without you ever knowing.”

You are now aware that she has so much more in her possession that could do more than hurt your relationship it could damage Chris’ career. 

“You don’t want to do that, Ashley,” Lisa speaks up.

“Why not?”

“Because you love Chris, you wouldn’t ruin everything he’s worked so hard for would you? I know you don’t want him with your friend, but he didn’t know how you felt. Surely you won’t hold it against him.”

Damn, she was good. While all of this was happening Nick and Josh had slipped out to call the police. You could also see Scott was video recording all of this on his phone.

“But he hurt me, why shouldn’t I hurt him?”

She sits; contemplative.

“Five million dollars,” she finally says.


	24. Chapter 24

“Excuse me?” you say.

“That’s what it will take to make the possibility of the release of the photos disappear.”

I look from Scott to Lisa and then to Chris.

Extortion? What wasn’t this girl capable of?

How could she? She was your best friend. Your mind begins to run through all of the times she had unconditionally been there for you. Had she always been this insane? Was there some sign that you missed? 

“You want money?” Chris asks shocked.

“Yes,” she replies flatly. 

“Or you will release photos of me to the public,” he clarifies.

“And of y/n. She adds. I have at least fifteen years of photos she would never want to see the light of day. 

Chris got red in the face at this threat. She could threaten him all she wanted. He would be upset if photos of him got out, but he’d be damned if she hurt you any more than she already had. 

“Haven’t you hurt her enough?” Chris practically growls at her.

“Not nearly,” she spews.

There was then a knock at the door, a pounding at the door really, “Los Angeles Police open up.”

Thank God!

Lisa jumps up to grab the door and as you all have been distracted by her doing that Ashley wraps an arm around you and pulls a knife from her back pocket. She points the tip at the side of your neck. A day ago you would have said she wasn’t capable of any of this, but now you weren’t even certain she would spare your life right now. 

The police enter guns drawn as she backs the two of you up. ‘I am going to die,’ you think. You try to think of the safest way to get away from her. She’s not got a gun, but she definitely has the knife pointed at the most fatal spot. You are strong, but you hope you are strong enough to hurt her. 

You have zoned out of the cops trying to talk her down and her screaming back. You know you have to act fast as you are now feeling the point digging in a bit a small trickle of blood. ‘Now or never.’

The next thirty seconds seem to move in slow motion. You catch her off guard; plunging your elbow hard into her skinny stomach. It’s enough to loosen her grip and knock the wind out of her sending her to her knees. You run to Chris as the police, who have doubled in number, run to disarm Ashley. 

Chris holds you and you all but collapse in a mess of tears into his arms. It was over. Ashley was being escorted out in cuffs as the others were being questioned. Scott’s phone was being taken into evidence since he had recorded most of the encounter. Ashley may be able to plead insanity, maybe she really was, but with video proof there was no way she wasn’t going to pay for all she had done. 

Your mother and father drove over from Oceanside. You were so happy to have your parents there. It took a while for the chaos to die down. There were police there for hours taking statements and there were helicopters hovering. You were sure it was all over the news about police being dispatched to your home. The best part was that now there could be an official statement about what happened. The gossip rags would finally have the correct story.

You and Chris made quite the debut as a couple. What happened to you two would likely be the talk of the town for a while but everything would eventually die down, like you had envisioned it would. It would just take a little longer than you had anticipated.


	25. Epilogue

“We’ve received word from Chris Evans’ camp that everyone is okay after police were called to his residence yesterday afternoon. Apparently he and his long-time girlfriend, now fiancée were the target of a scheme orchestrated by someone close to the couple to break them apart. All articles and photos that have been released in the past weeks surrounding the couple and his relationship with Lily Collins were fabricated by this friend of the couple. Lily’s rep revealed that she had made no such claim that Lily and Chris were a couple, it was in fact the friend posing as Lily’s rep. Lily’s rep and Chris’ agreed keeping quiet until they were able to uncover the culprit behind the mayhem was going to be the best course of action.” Mario Lopez says. 

Chris sat down with Nick and Josh after everything calmed down yesterday to figure out a statement to release. They agreed the truth leaving out Ashley’s name directly. 

“I just can’t imagine what they were going through during all of this,” Tracey Edmonds chimes in. “To come out as a couple in Hollywood is hard enough, let alone if you not a celebrity like your significant other, but to have someone out to get you immediately?”

“And someone close to you?” Mario continues. 

You listened to it a bit longer. Eventually Ashley’s name would be revealed, the charges against her would be known and there would be talk about how your childhood best friend tried to kill you over a celebrity crush. 

The articles that came through over the next few days were mostly about police at Chris’. Like you thought they would figure out who it was and who she was to you. 

Things died down enough for you to work and start to plan your own wedding. Chris’ mother and Tara went home and as Tara promised she sent you her wedding book. Things were finally shaping up to be the mundane day to day existence you had wanted. As mundane as they could be when you’re dating Chris Evans that is.


	26. Authors Note

Okay, I finally uploaded the last chapters.

Good news and bad news with those chapters. 

Bad news: I HATE THEM. They were the original chapters I was unhappy with. The story became predictable and the ending became forced and rushed. I am really sorry.

Good news: the whole story is going through a complete overhaul. Even the bad guy has changed. 

For all of you who have continued with this story and loved it and supported it, I love you. You have NO idea what it all has meant for me. I promise to make this story worthy of the love you have shown for it. You deserved not to be left hanging though, which is why I bit the bullet and uploaded what I had. 

I have a new Instagram

@authoralexifox 

The goal for the overhauled version of this story is to get it published. So I invite you to follow and join me on this journey.


End file.
